Japan's Shinzo Abe dies after being shot during a campaign speech

Diplomacy

Published: 08 Jul. 2022, 12:21 Updated: 08 Jul. 2022, 20:21

Japan's Shinzo Abe dies after being shot during a campaign speech

In this file photo taken on April 25, 2019 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe leaves the Bratislava Castle after a Visegrad group countries (V4) and Japan meeting in Bratislava. - Abe has been confirmed dead after he was shot at a campaign event in the city of Nara on Friday, public broadcaster NHK and Jiji news agency reported. [AFP/YONHAP]

Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has died after being shot by a man while giving a campign speech on Friday, state broadcaster NHK reported.

A sound like a gunshot was heard when Abe was giving a speech in the city of Nara in western Japan around 11:30 a.m. Abe was soon seen collapsed on the ground, bleeding.

A suspect, a 41-year-old man identified by the police as Tetsuya Yamagami, was detained on site, the Japanese broadcaster reported.

Abe was taken to a hosptial but was later pronounced dead, the NHK reported, citing sources in the Liberal Democratic Party.

Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, center, falls on the ground in Nara, western Japan on Friday. Abe was in heart failure after apparently being shot during a campaign speech Friday in western Japan, NHK reported. [AP/YONHAP]

Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol expressed his condolences following the news of Abe's death, according to the presidential office.

In a message to Abe's wife, Akie Abe, Yoon said, "I express my condolences and consolation to his bereaved family and the Japanese people over the loss of the longest-serving prime minister in Japan's constitutional history and a respected politician."

He called the shooting an "unacceptable criminal act."

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]