Video: Moment When Japan Ex PM Shinzo Abe Was Shot On Stage

Japanese former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe died after being shot while campaigning. Abe, 67, was on stage, delivering a speech at Nara when he was shot in the chest. He was rushed to a hospital bleeding, with first responders saying he was “showing no vital signs”.

"Former prime minister Abe was shot at around 11:30 am in Nara. One man, believed to be the shooter, has been taken into custody," Japan's chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters.

He has gone into pulmonary cardiac arrest, local media reports suggested. Visuals from the spot showed several ambulances and emergency response teams trying to rescue him. A photograph showed Abe lying face-up on the street by a guardrail, blood on his white shirt. People were crowded around him, one administering heart massage.

A 41-year-old man, who appeared to have shot Abe in the back, had been arrested for attempted murder and a gun had been confiscated from him.

A reporter of public broadcaster NHK on the scene said they could hear two consecutive bangs during Abe's speech.

Shinzo Abe, 67, was making a speech at the campaign event and “a man came from behind”, a young woman told NHK.

Shinzo Abe collapsed after a second shot was fired.

Japan is a country with some of the strictest gun laws among leading economies and shootings are rare.

Shinzo Abe, Japan's longest-serving prime minister, held office in 2006 for one year and again from 2012 to 2020, when he was forced to step down due to the debilitating bowel condition ulcerative colitis.