Former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe dies after being shot at campaign event

Tokyo: Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe died after being shot on Friday during a campaign event in western Japan; the hospital confirmed the death.    

The senior Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) official said former prime minister Abe took his last breath at a hospital in Kashihara city, Nara region, where he was admitted to receive medical treatment.  

The spokesperson of Japanese said a 41-year-old man had been arrested. According to the local media, the suspect had served in the Japanese navy and left Japan’s Self-Defense Force in 2005; the suspect confessed to the shooting that he was unhappy with Abe and intended to kill him.  

The sudden shooting attack shocked a nation containing the world’s strictest gun control laws, and the shooter used a homemade gun.

According to the information provided by sources, many people have “condemned the violence as the country is not used to events like this, the question is how the attacker could get past security.”

The people at the crime scene have informed that they heard two consecutive bangs during Abe’s speech. The Abe was shot from behind and hit in the neck and chest.  

Abe collapsed on the street, surrounded by several security guards. He was holding his chest with his shirt smeared with blood. 

“He was giving a speech, and a man came from behind,” a woman at the scene informed. 

“The first shot sounded like a toy. He didn’t fall, and there was a large bang. The second shot was more visible, and you could see the spark and smoke,” she added. 

According to the media reports, Abe was taken to the hospital and appeared to be in cardo-respiratory arrest. Police later raided the man’s home, who was arrested over the shooting.