The attack happened during a campaign rally. Shots targeted and hit former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during an election rally in Nara (western Japan) on Friday July 8. Transported in a “very serious condition” at the hospital, Shinzo Abe, 67, died a few hours later, announced the Nara hospital, confirming information from the NHK channel. A suspect has been arrested. Franceinfo returns to this attack which arouses a worldwide stir.
>> LIVE. Japan: the latest information and reactions after the death of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
An attack in the middle of the senatorial election campaign
The shots were fired around 11:30 a.m. local time (04:30 a.m. Paris time), near Yama-tosaidaiji station in Nara, western Japan. Shinzo Abe, 67, was taking part in a campaign rally as part of the senatorial elections scheduled for Sunday. Several media report that he was shot in the back while speaking publicly in the street.
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“The first shot sounded like a toy. It [Shinzo Abe] did not fall and there was a loud bang. The second shot was more visible, you could see the spark and smoke.”a witness to the scene told NHK. “People surrounded him and gave him heart massage”, she said again. An amateur video has been released in which we see Shinzo Abe’s team rushing towards him. The politician was evacuated first by ambulance, then by helicopter, specifies CNN.
Shinzo Abe died in hospital
The ex-prime minister was shot twice in the neck, confirmed a member of the medical team who tried to save Shinzo Abe, at Nara hospital, during a press conference broadcast by the channel NHK television.
The politician was first declared in “a very serious condition”, by the current Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, former foreign minister of Shinzo Abe from 2012 to 2017, adding to pray for his survival. “Shinzo Abe was transported [à l’hôpital] at 12:20 p.m. He was in a state of cardio-respiratory arrest when he arrived. [Les médecins ont] attempted to resuscitate him. However, he sadly passed away at 5:03 p.m. (10:03 a.m. Paris), said Hidetada Fukushima, a professor of emergency medicine at Nara Medical University Hospital in nearby Kashihara. “We weren’t able to keep him alive”, said the doctor. A blood transfusion was performed but failed to keep Shinzo Abe alive.
Shinzo Abe became head of government for the first time in 2006, then from 2012 to 2020. A chronic inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, led him to resign.
Suspect arrested
A man in his 40s was arrested, Japanese media reported. Citing police sources, state broadcaster NHK said he was still holding a gun when he was arrested. The man did not attempt to leave the scene, according to NHK.
Video shows officers battling the suspect on the ground near where Shinzo Abe was standing, moments after the shots were fired. The weapon visible on the images seems of artisanal design, underlines Reuters. Japanese police raided the suspect’s home shortly after his arrest.
The suspect confessed to committing the crime, a senior Nara area police official said. He “said he held a grudge against a certain organization and he confessed to committing the crime because he believed former Prime Minister Abe was related to him”the policeman told reporters, refusing to give further details.
International leaders in shock
The head of NATO said to himself “deeply saddened” speak “heinous murder” by Shinzo Abe, “a defender of democracy”. The head of the Italian government Mario Draghi has “firmly condemnedFriday the attack against the former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in a tweet published simultaneously with the announcement of his death by Japanese media.
Before learning of the death of the former Japanese leader, the reactions had already succeeded. “Deeply moved” by the attack, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi described Shinzo Abe as a “dear friend”, before the announcement of his death. At the heart of a political storm in his country, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said to himself “dismayed and saddened” after the attack “abject” against the former Japanese Prime Minister.
The President of the European Council Charles Michel declared himself “shocked and saddened” by the attack of the one he saw as a “true friend, fierce defender of the multilateral order and democratic values”.
In France, President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter to be “deeply shocked by the heinous attack” against Shinzo Abe. “France stands alongside the Japanese people”, assured the Head of State in a tweet, addressing his “Thoughts with the family and loved ones of a great Prime Minister”.
Deeply shocked by the heinous attack that Shinzo Abe suffered. Thoughts to the family and loved ones of a great Prime Minister. France stands alongside the Japanese people.
—Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) July 8, 2022