Former Prime minister of Japan Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving leader of modern Japan, was gunned down today. He was campaigning for the parliamentary elections on the streets of Nara city.
Abe, 67, was pronounced dead almost five hours after the shooting occurred. Hidetada Fukushima, the professor in charge of emergency medicine at Nara Medical University Hospital, said in a press conference that Abe was taken to the hospital in cardiopulmonary arrest and showed no vital signs. He was declared dead at 5:03 pm, having bled death from deep wounds to the heart side of his neck; he had received more than 100 units of blood in transfusions over four hours.
Meanwhile, Nara police authorities arrested a 41-year-old man and said the weapon was a handmade gun. Nara police authorities had said that the shooter, who is identified in the media as Tetsuya Yamagami was a Nara resident and had worked in Japan's Maritime Self Defence Forces for almost three years but now what appears is that he is unemployed. Further, the authorities have added that the matter is now under investigation, the shooter's motive is unknown and whether he acted alone is also unknown.
Normal Japanese citizens are in shock by this incident, Gun laws in Japan are stringent, and there is almost no gun violence in Japan.