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Japan PM Fumio Kishida evacuated unharmed after explosion heard at speech

Saturday, 15 April 2023 7:34 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 15 April 2023 8:06 AM ]

A man, believed to be a suspect who threw a pipe-like object near Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during his outdoor speech, is held by police officers at Saikazaki fishing port in Wakayama, Wakayama Prefecture, south-western Japan April 15, 2023. (Photo by Reuters)

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has been rushed to safety unharmed, after a smoke bomb was tossed toward him when he attended an outdoor speech at a port in western Japan.

Video footage released by state broadcaster NHK on Saturday showed scenes of chaos with people fleeing, and men, believed to be police officers, piling and gripping onto the suspect on the ground, and carrying him away.

Local media reported that the attacker was detained at the scene of the incident in the Saikazaki fishing harbor in Wakayama, some 65 kilometers southwest of Osaka city.

The attacker appeared to be in his 20s or 30s, according to the local media.

Japanese residents expressed shock.

"It was the same when it happened with (former) Prime Minister Abe. I was shocked that something like this happened again," said 68-year-old Michiko Akao from Gunma Prefecture.

NHK said Kishida had just begun delivering his speech after he toured around the harbor, when the incident occurred. Sources say no one at the site was injured.

Kishida during a phone call with a senior official of the Liberal Democratic Party said the time between spotting the object and the explosion was enough to allow him to move away to the site in Wakayama city.

He said he fled moments before the explosion, after he spotted the object being hurled.

A witness said they heard a big bang, while another said that they saw smoke after a person threw something.

A city council member who was at the scene told NHK that a “cylindrical silver object” had flown “about two meters in front of me” shortly before the explosion was heard.

Hiroshi Moriyama, a member of Kishida's Liberal Democratic Party, said: "Something like this happened in the middle of an election campaign that constitutes the foundation of democracy is regrettable. It's an unforgivable atrocity."

Kishida was back to campaigning about an hour after the explosion at the port where he was about to address the public, NHK reported.

Last year Japan was shocked after former prime minister Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving leader of modern Japan was assassinated with a homemade gun, while he was campaigning for parliamentary elections.

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