TOKYO — Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was in heart failure after apparently being shot Friday during a campaign speech in western Japan, NHK public television said.
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. NHK says Abe was rushed to a hospital.
Abe was in Nara campaigning ahead of Sunday’s election for the parliament’s upper house and was giving a speech when people heard a gunshot.
Police arrested a male suspect at the scene on suspicion of attempted murder, NHK said.
The attack was a shock in a country that’s one of the world’s safest and with some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere.
The term heart failure means the heart cannot sufficiently pump blood and supply necessary oxygen to the rest of the body. In Japan, officials sometimes use the term to describe situations where victims are no longer alive but before a formal declaration of death has been made.
It was not immediately clear how serious Abe’s injuries were or if he was still displaying vital signs.
Abe, 67, stepped down as prime minister in 2020 because he said a chronic health problem had resurfaced. Abe has had ulcerative colitis since he was a teenager and has said the condition was controlled with treatment.
