PM Narendra Modi ‘deeply distressed’ by attack on ‘dear friend’ Shinzo Abe, prays for him

PM Modi took to Twitter to share his thoughts minutes after the news about the attack on the ex-Japan PM spread like wildfire.

File Image of PM Modi & Shinzo Abe

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that he was “deeply distressed by the attack on his “dear friend Shinzo Abe” and was praying for his well-being and the people of Japan. PM Modi took to Twitter to share his thoughts minutes after the news about attack on ex-Japan PM spread.

Deeply distressed by the attack on my dear friend Abe Shinzo. Our thoughts and prayers are with him, his family, and the people of Japan.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 8, 2022

Japan's former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot during a campaign speech Friday in western Japan and was airlifted to a hospital but he was not breathing and his heart had stopped, officials said. Local fire department official Makoto Morimoto said Abe was in cardio and pulmonary arrest after being shot and was taken to a prefectural hospital.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters that police arrested the suspected gunman at the scene. "A barbaric act like this is absolutely unforgivable, no matter what the reasons are, and we condemn it strongly," Matsuno said.

NHK public broadcaster aired footage showing Abe collapsed on the street, with several security guards running toward him. He was reportedly shot a few minutes after he started talking outside of the main train station in western Nara.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who belongs to the same political party as Abe, is on his way to Tokyo on a helicopter from his own campaign destination of Yamagata, in northern Japan. Matsuno said all Cabinet ministers are to return to Tokyo from their campaign trips.

In another footage, campaign officials were surrounding him to treat the popular former leader who is still influential in the governing Liberal Democratic Party and heads its largest faction Seiwakai. Elections for Japan's upper house, the less powerful chamber of its parliament, are Sunday.

Abe was giving a speech when people heard gunshots. He was holding his chest when he collapsed, his shirt smeared with blood, but was able to speak before he fell unconscious.

The attack was a shock in a country that's one of the world's safest and with some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere. The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper printed extra editions, which were quickly grabbed by people on the street to read about the shooting.

Nara, once the capital of Japan, is just to the east of Osaka on the country's main Honshu island. Abe stepped down in 2020 because he said a chronic health problem has resurfaced. Abe has had ulcerative colitis since he was a teenager and has said the condition was controlled with treatment.