Prominent World Leader Dies after Being Shot During Campaign Event
Japan - Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has died after being shot during a speech on Friday, July 8, in Nara, according to CNN.
The former PM was shot at a campaign event on Friday, a government spokesman was cited as saying.
Source: Getty Images
“Former prime minister Abe was shot at around 11:30 am,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, told newsmen.
“One man, believed to be the shooter, has been taken into custody. The condition of former prime minister Abe is currently unknown.”
“Whatever the reason, such a barbaric act can never be tolerated, and we strongly condemn it,” Matsuno added.
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Abe, 67, had been delivering a stump speech with security present, but spectators were able to approach him fairly easily, Legit.ng gathered.
He was reportedly standing on a stage when a loud blast was heard with smoke visible in the air.
As spectators and reporters ducked, a man was shown being tackled to the ground by security.
Local media identified the man as 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, citing police sources, with several media outlets describing him as a former member of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, the country’s navy.
Shinzo Abe's death: Witness speaks
Witnesses at the scene described shock as the political event turned into chaos.
“He was giving a speech and a man came from behind,” a young woman said.
“The first shot sounded like a toy bazooka. He didn’t fall and there was a large bang. The second shot was more visible, you could see the spark and smoke,” she added.
“After the second shot, people surrounded him and gave him cardiac massage.”
United States, Thailand, India react
The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the development as "a very, very sad moment."
He told reporters at a G20 meeting in Bali, saying the United States was “deeply saddened and deeply concerned”.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha was “very shocked” at Abe’s shooting, while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “deeply distressed” by the news.
Indigenous farewell for expert killed in Amazon
In another report, Bruno Pereira, the Brazilian Indigenous expert murdered in the Amazon with British journalist Dom Phillips, was given a moving sendoff Friday by members of one of the tribes he had spent his life and work defending.
Dressed in straw and feather loincloths and headgear, members of the Xukuru Indigenous group chanted funeral hymns and mourned at a solemn ceremony near Recife, where Pereira was born, in the northeastern Pernambuco state.
A photograph of 41-year-old Pereira was perched on his coffin, also draped with the flag of his favorite football team, Sport Recife.
Source: Legit.ng
