Japan ex-PM Abe assassinated while making election campaign speech

FILE PHOTO: Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visits Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, Japan August 15, 2021. REUTERS/Issei Kato

NARA, Japan (Reuters) - Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan's longest-serving leader, died on Friday hours after he was shot while campaigning for a parliamentary election, shocking a country in which political violence is rare and guns are tightly controlled.

A man opened fire on Abe, 67, from behind with an apparently homemade gun as he spoke at a drab traffic island in the western city of Nara, Japanese media reported.