Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe died on Friday after being shot at a campaign event in the western city of Nara, near Kyoto.
Abe (67), was shot around 11:30 AM local time (10:30 PM Thursday ET) as he was campaigning ahead of elections scheduled for Sunday.
Officials said that one person had been arrested in relation to the shooting.
Abe was rushed to Nara Medical University Hospital after suffering cardio and pulmonary arrest. He was later declared dead.
According to Dr Hidetada Fukushima, a professor of emergency medicine at the hospital, Abe had two gunshot wounds and no vital signs when he arrived less than an hour after the shooting.
Life-saving measures including blood transfusions were unsuccessful, said Dr Fukushima, and Abe was pronounced dead at 4:03 AM Eastern Time (ET).
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida condemned the attack, describing it as “a despicable and barbaric act that took place in the midst of an election, which is the foundation of democracy.”
Kishida said no decisions had been made as to how the shooting would affect the election for the upper house of Parliament.
Abe was shot while campaigning for other members of the governing conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) but was not a candidate himself.
Iwao Horii, an LDP member of the upper house representing Nara, who was standing next to Abe when the former prime minister was shot, said:
We heard two loud sounds while he was talking and he fell immediately after that.
He added that Abe was unresponsive when emergency medics tried to resuscitate him.
Abe was the first foreign leader to meet with Donald Trump after he became U.S. president-elect in November 2016.
He resigned two years ago amid a worsening of his ulcerative colitis, a chronic bowel condition he had battled for years.
Abe stepped down days after he set a record as Japan’s longest-lasting prime minister, having been in office for almost eight years.
He previously served as prime minister from 2006 to 2007.