Ex Japanese PM Shinzo Abe dies

By Trend

Ex-Japanese PM Shinzo Abe has died after being shot while campaigning, Trend reports with reference to NDTV.

Shinzo Abe was shot in Nara, said Prime Minister Fumio Kishida earlier in the day.

One man, believed to be the shooter, has been taken into custody, chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said. Local media identified the man as 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, citing police sources.

Shinzo Abe was delivering a speech at an event ahead of Sunday's upper house elections when gunshots were heard, NHK and the Kyodo news agency said.

"He was giving a speech and a man came from behind," a young woman at the scene told NHK. "The first shot sounded like a toy. He didn't fall and there was a large bang. The second shot was more visible, you could see the spark and smoke," she added. "After the second shot, people surrounded him and gave him cardiac massage."

Abe, 67, collapsed and was bleeding from the neck, a source from his ruling Liberal Democratic Party told the Jiji news agency. An official of Abe's faction of the ruling party said he underwent transfusions, reports said.