Former Japan PM Shinzo Abe shot during election campaign

Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been taken to hospital after apparently being shot during a campaign speech in the western city of Nara, Aljazeera reports. 

The NHK broadcaster, citing the local fire department, said on Friday that the 67-year-old “is showing no vital signs”.

Japanese police told local media Abe appeared to have been shot from behind with a shotgun. He collapsed at around 11:30am (02:30 GMT).

NHK said its reporter on the scene heard “what sounded like a gun going off twice” and saw Abe bleeding.

The broadcaster aired footage showing Abe collapsed on the street, with several security guards running toward him. Abe was holding his chest when he collapsed, with his shirt smeared with blood.

Kyodo News said Abe was not conscious and appeared to be in cardiac arrest.

The agency said the former prime minister was attacked by an unidentified man on a street near the Yamatosaidaiji Station in Nara.

Abe was in the city campaigning ahead of Sunday’s election for the parliament’s upper house.

NHK said a male suspect has been taken into custody on suspicion of attempted murder. The man, who appeared to be in his 40s, was holding a gun, which police confiscated, it added.