Chinese celebrate assassination bid on Shinzo Abe, term attacker a 'hero'

New Delhi: Soon after Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot during a campaign speech in western Japan on Friday, Chinese nationalists began to celebrate his assassination bid on Weibo, sending him death wishes and terming the attacker a 'hero'.

Chinese nationalists on Weibo have began to celebrate that Japan’s ex PM Abe is shot during campaign today.

they call the attacker “hero” and send death wish to Abe

photo credit @MachineGun____ #TheGreatTranslationMovement #大翻译运动 pic.twitter.com/K4cxtQd0pi

— 巴丢草 Badiucao (@badiucao) July 8, 2022

The post was shared on the Twitter handle of Badiucao - a Chinese political cartoonist, artist and rights activist based in Australia.

After being shot Abe 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 a 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.

With inputs from agencies

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