Hove MP condemns shooting of Shinzo Abe as 'assault on democracy'

The shadow Northern Ireland secretary and MP for Hove shared his condolences with Mr Abe’s family and the Japanese people after he was shot from behind minutes after starting a campaign speech in Nara.

Mr Kyle said: “Shinzo Abe’s assassination is a horrific act of violence. It’s also an assault against democracy.

“My thoughts are with his family and the people of Japan at this profoundly difficult time.”

Footage from the scene aired by Japanese broadcaster NHK showed Mr Abe giving a speech outside a train station when two gunshots are heard.

The video then shows the former Prime Minister collapsed on the street, with security guards running toward him.

The 67-year-old was seen holding his chest with his shirt smeared with blood.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, right, with Boris Johnson at a G7 summit in 2018

Hidetada Fukushima, Nara Medical University accident and emegency chief, said that the former leader suffered major damage to his heart in the attack, in addition to two neck wounds that damaged an artery, causing extensive bleeding.

He was airlifted to hospital from the scene for emergency treatment but was later pronounced dead.

Security guards leapt on top of a man with a grey shirt shortly after the attack, with a double-barrelled device that appeared to be a handmade gun lying on the ground.

Police have arrested a suspected gunman Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, at the scene of the assassination, which has shocked people in a country known as one of the world’s safest.

NHK reported that the suspect served in the country’s Maritime Self-Defence Force in the 2000s.

Mr Abe was Japan’s longest-serving Prime Minister, holding office between 2006 and 2007, and again from 2012 to 2020, when he stepped down for health reasons.

He was credited for revitalising Japan’s economy and led efforts for the nation to take a stronger role in Asia.

But he was considered a polarising figure after a hawkish push to revamp the military and his revisionist review that Japan was given an unfair verdict by history for its brutal past.