Shinzo Abe, Japan's former Prime Minister, was shot during a campaign rally on Friday, according to a government official, while local media said the ex-leader was not breathing.

"Former prime minister Abe was shot at around 11:30 am," in the country's western region of Nara, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters. "One man, believed to be the shooter, has been taken into custody. The condition of former prime minister Abe is currently unknown."

"Whatever the reason, such a barbaric act can never be tolerated, and we strongly condemn it," Matsuno added.

Local media, including NHK and the Kyodo news agency, said the former Prime Minister seemed to be in "cardiorespiratory arrest", a term commonly used in Japan before a suspected death can be officially certified by a coroner.

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The assassination of a man who may be Japan's most well-known politician occurs despite the country's well-known low levels of violent crime and strict weapons prohibitions.

Abe was giving a stump speech at an event before Sunday's upper house elections, and while security was present, viewers were able to approach him pretty readily.

NHK footage shows him standing on a stage when a loud boom is heard and smoke can be seen in the air. A man is then seen being tackled to the ground by security. "He was giving a speech and a man came from behind," a young woman at the scene told NHK.

"The first shot sounded like a toy. He didn't fall and there was a large bang. The second shot was more visible, you could see the spark and smoke," she added. "After the second shot, people surrounded him and gave him a cardiac massage."

Abe, 67, slumped and was bleeding from the neck, according to a source in his ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

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"What we can share now is that his transfer here has been completed," an official at Nara Medical University hospital told AFP, declining to comment on the former leader's condition.

'Saddened and shocked' 

According to several media outlets, he seemed to have been shot from behind. Local media outlet Jiji said the administration had organized a task force in the aftermath of the tragedy and that reactions were already pouring in.

NHK is broadcasting the moment that Japanese Former PM Shinzo Abe was shot from behind. Video does not show the shooter, just the puff of smoke. pic.twitter.com/4CNW1JTmvn

— Global: MilitaryInfo (@Global_Mil_Info) July 8, 2022

"We are all saddened and shocked by the shooting of former prime minister Abe Shinzo," US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said in a statement.

"The US government and American people are praying for the well-being of Abe-san, his family, and people of Japan."

Russian Ambassador to Japan Mikhail Galuzin, on his part, strongly condemned the "barbaric attack" on former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Sputnik reported.

"We are praying for the health of former Japanese Prime Minister Mr. Shinzo Abe. We strongly condemn the barbaric attack on him," Galuzin said in a statement posted on the Russian embassy's Twitter account.

According to Jiji, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's special advisor Gen Nakatani told reporters that "terror or violence can never be tolerated."

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Abe, Japan's longest-serving Prime Minister, served for one year in 2006 and again from 2012 to 2020 until being forced to resign due to the debilitating bowel condition ulcerative colitis.

It is worth noting that Japan has some of the strictest gun-control regulations in the world, and yearly firearm deaths in the country of 125 million people are often in the single digits.

Even for Japanese nationals, obtaining a gun license is a lengthy and complicated process that requires a recommendation from a shooting association and extensive police checks.