NARA(Reuters): Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving leader, died on Friday hours after he was shot while campaigning for a parliamentary election, shocking a country in which political violence is rare and guns are tightly controlled, Reuters reported.
According to Reuters, a man opened fire on Abe, 67, from behind with an apparently homemade gun as he spoke at a drab traffic island in the western city of Nara, Japanese media reported.
Doctors struggled to save Abe but he died at 5:03 p.m.(0803 GMT), about five and a half hours after being shot.
He bled to death from two deep wounds, one on the right side of his neck, a doctor told a nationally televised news conference.
The former leader had no vital signs when he was brought in.
Abe in 2015 KO SASAKI FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL