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Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is in critical condition after being shot.
The 67-year-old politician – Japan’s longest-serving prime minister before stepping down due to health concerns in 2020 – was shot and seriously wounded while campaigning in the city of Nara on Friday (8/7/22).
Current Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Abe was in a “critical state”, adding: “At the moment, doctors are doing what they can. I hope and pray that former Prime Minister Abe can survive this.”
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said: “Former Prime Minister Abe was shot dead in Nara at around 11:30 local time (02:30 GMT). A man believed to be the shooter has been detained. The situation of the former prime minister. Minister Abe is currently unknown.
“For whatever reason, such brutality is absolutely intolerable and we strongly condemn it.”
Abe was in a state of “cardiopulmonary arrest”, former Tokyo governor Yoichi Takaya said in a tweet.
The term was often used before the death was officially confirmed in Japan.
However, NHK cited police sources as saying Abe was “conscious and responsive” after the attack.
Abe was taken to Nara Medical University Hospital after being shot in the chest and neck during a campaign speech ahead of Sunday’s upper house election.
The gunman – believed to be a Nara man in his 40s who served in the Maritime Self-Defense Force for about three years until 2005 – did not try to escape, but was detained at the scene.
Japan has some of the toughest gun control laws in the world, and it is believed the weapons used to attack him were homemade.
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