Moment Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida escapes assassination attempt after man launches smoke bomb towards his direction during campaign event (video)
Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, survived an assassination attempt on Saturday, April 15 after an explosion occurred at a venue where he was giving an outdoor speech.
Local news agency Kyodo news reported that a man had been arrested after throwing “what appeared to be a smoke bomb.”
Video footage released by Japan’s public broadcaster NHK showed members of the public fleeing and a man being arrested following the explosion.
The footage showed multiple police officers, holding the suspect on the ground. Other pictures showed a silver cylinder that was thrown in Kishida’s direction.
The dramatic scenes took place in the city of Wakayama, shortly after a visit by Kishida to the local Saikazaki Fishing Port.
The circumstances surrounding the suspected attack drew immediate comparisons to the assassination of Japanese former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was shot in July last year during a campaign speech in the western city of Nara.
Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, was shot while giving a campaign speech to a small crowd near a railway station.
The attack on Abe had shocked Japan, a country with a low crime rate, and an Asian nation rarely associated with political and gun violence.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was apparently targeted as a man threw an explosive device at a campaign event in a western port city, officials said. Police wrestled a suspect to the ground as screaming bystanders scrambled to get away and smoke filled the air. pic.twitter.com/IYT4eeQXrE
— RT (@RT_com) April 15, 2023