Payam Javan: Public television NHK aired shocking footage of Abe speaking in front of a train station in the western city of Nara. Two gunshots are fired, The next scene in the film shows Abe unconscious on the sidewalk as security personnel rush to help. His shirt is covered in blood.

Security personnel immediately jump on top of a man in a gray shirt who is lying face down on the pavement. On the ground is what appears to be a homemade gun with two barrels. Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, was arrested by Nara Prefectural Police on suspicion of attempted murder.

The suspect reportedly spent three years in the Maritime Self-Defense Force in the 2000s, according to NHK.

The attack was denounced by opposition leaders as a threat to Japan’s democracy.