Attack on former Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe, during   a rally in the Japanese city of Nara.

Abe, 67, was the victim of a gun ambush. Centered in the back, bleeding, he was rushed to the emergency room, where attempts by doctors to save his life were unfortunately useless . The injuries sustained were too serious, hospital doctors reported, with the former prime minister allegedly having died after losing a lot of blood and after being immediately subjected to a transfusion.

After the incident, the police arrested a 41-year-old , Tetsuya Yamagami, a former soldier of the self-defense forces, on suspicion of attempted murder. The man, a resident of Nara, would have managed to evade security and approach Abe, who was giving a speech in the street in support of a local candidate, pulling the trigger twice .

The reasons for the gesture are still unclear. From the first information, the 41-year-old would have fired a rudimentary weapon and would not have acted for political reasons.

The current prime minister Fumio Kishida , who returned urgently to Tokyo with the whole government after having suspended, like all parties, the electoral campaign (on Sunday we vote for the renewal of the Upper House), called the attack a "gesture cowardly and unacceptable ".

Messages of condolence came from all the leaders of the international community. Prime Minister Mario Draghi expressed "firm condemnation" to the incident, explaining that Italy "is close to the Japanese people in this dramatic moment".

WHO WAS - Shinzo Abe , born in 1954,   he was the politically "longest-serving" prime minister in the history of post-war Japan . He led the government in 20026-2007 and then from 2012 to 2020, forced to leave for health reasons .

Exponent of a noble family of politicians (grandfather Nobusuke Kishi was prime minister from 1957 to 1960, while his brother, Nobuo Kishi, is the current defense minister) was one of the undisputed leaders of the conservative party .

(Unioneonline / lf)

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