New Delhi

The man who allegedly shot Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Nara on Friday forenoon, reportedly told the police that he committed the crime as he has a grudge against a “specific organization.” He believed that the organization was linked with Abe.

The suspect identified as Tetsuya Yamagami, a 41 year old local resident, was arrested on the spot on suspicion of attempted murder, the police said. “It's not a grudge against the political beliefs of former Prime Minister Abe," the Nara prefectural police quoted Yamagami as saying.

Reports in Japanese media quoted the police as saying that Yamagami came to the venue of the speech by train. His home was later searched by the police, who found items that could be explosives and homemade guns.

Relying on information gathered from government sources, the Japanese media said that the accused was a member of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, apparently for about three years through 2005.  At present, he is unemployed. Yamagami was armed with a homemade gun when he approached the 67 year old former Prime Minister from behind at around 11.30 a.m. (local time) as he was speaking in front of Kintetsu Railway's Yamato-Saidaiji Station. The weapon used by Abe's assailant made a noise that could be compared to an explosion.Two loud shots were heard as Japan’s most influential post war leader collapsed on the ground while delivering a stump speech, two days ahead of a national election. Police claimed that Abe was rushed to a hospital with blood seen on his white shirt.

Japanese media quoted Nara Medical University Hospital doctors as saying that Abe was pronounced dead at 5:03 p.m. and the wound was deep enough to reach his heart.  The doctors said that the cause of death is believed to be blood loss.

It is understood that Yamagami was working at a manufacturing unit in the Kansai region covering Osaka, Nara and Kyoto from around the autumn of 2020 but quit in May this year.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, after returning to his office in Tokyo by helicopter from Yamagata Prefecture where he was campaigning, condemned the shooting of the former leader "in the strongest possible terms." He said that that he will continue with campaigning without yielding to violence and ensure a "free and fair" election. "The barbaric act that took the life of former Prime Minister Abe during (campaigning for) an election that serves as the foundation of democracy should never be tolerated.’’

Doctors who attended to Abe soon after he was brought to the hospital were quoted by Japanese media as saying that he showed no signs of life.

Abe, who was also the longtime leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, was in the city to support a candidate running in Sunday's House of Councillors election. A crowd had gathered to listen to his speech.

The Japanese media described the incident as a rare case of a shooting in Japan, a country with strict gun regulations. No Japanese prime minister after World War II had been killed.