Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe passed away on Friday, hours after being shot while addressing an election rally in the city of Nara, according to state media.<\/p>\n
A doctor attending on Abe in Nara Medical University Hospital said that the leader died at 08:03 GMT, BBC reported.<\/p>\n
“During four-and-a-half-hour treatment, medics tried to stop the bleeding and carried out a blood transfusion, using more than 100 units of blood,” the doctor said.<\/p>\n
Abe sustained two wounds, believed to be bullet injuries, but medics could not find bullets during surgery, the doctor added.<\/p>\n
Abe, 67, immediately collapsed after being shot and was seen bleeding before he was taken to hospital.<\/p>\n
According to state broadcaster NHK, the attack took place at around 11.30 a.m. (local time) near the Yamatosaidaiji Station in Nara city while Abe was making a speech during a Liberal Democratic Party candidate’s election campaign.<\/p>\n
The suspect, identified as 41-year-old Yamagami Tetsuya, a resident of Nara city, has been arrested.<\/p>\n
According to the police, the accused told investigators that he was dissatisfied with the former Prime Minister and intended to kill him.<\/p>\n
Investigative sources told NHK a gun seized at the scene appeared to be handmade.<\/p>\n
Japan is slated to hold parliamentary election this Sunday.<\/p>\n
Abe’s visit was only confirmed late last night, so how the suspect managed to find out about this and carry out the attack remains an open question, said the BBC.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the attack was a “despicable act that took place during an election period, which is the foundation of democracy”, state broadcaster NHK reported.<\/p>\n
“It is totally unacceptable. I condemn the act in the strongest possible terms.”<\/p>\n
The Prime Minister added that “it is important for the government to prepare to take all necessary measures to deal with any possible situation”.<\/p>\n
Sources added that the suspect worked for the Maritime Self Defense Force for three years until around 2005.<\/p>\n
Abe became Japan’s longest-serving Prime Minister after serving from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020.<\/p>\n
He stepped down in 2020 citing health reasons.<\/p>\n
He later revealed that he had suffered a relapse of ulcerative colitis, an intestinal disease, the BBC reported.<\/p>\n
He was succeeded by his close party ally Yoshihide Suga, who was later replaced by Fumio Kishida.<\/p>\n
Key figures from across the world have condemned the incident.<\/p>\n
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a day-long national mourning for Shinzo Abe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe passed away on Friday, hours after being shot while addressing an election rally in the city of Nara, according to state media. A doctor attending on Abe in Nara Medical University Hospital said that the leader died at 08:03 GMT, BBC reported. “During four-and-a-half-hour treatment, medics tried to stop […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main-stories","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18719,"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18717\/revisions\/18719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}