Local media report that Japan's former prime minister Shinzo Abe has died in the hospital following a shooting during a campaign rally, Friday.

On Friday morning, Abe sustained two gunshot wounds in the chest while delivering a speech in Nara, a city in Japan's south.

A doctor was called to take him to the hospital right away when he fell ill.

He appeared to be bleeding from the waist down in the photos obtained at the scene. 

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called the incident "barbaric and nasty and it must be condoned" at an impassioned press conference Friday.

Around 11:30 a.m. local time, shooting was heard in the city of Nara, where Abe, Japan's longest-serving prime minister, had just begun speaking.

It was stated that he was admitted to the Nara Medical University Hospital.

Hirokazu Matsuno, chief cabinet secretary, stated briefly on television that one suspect had been captured in connection with the incident. The police identified the culprit as a 41-year-old Nara resident, as reported by NHK.

"Such a heinous crime is completely abhorrent, and we condemn it unreservedly," he said. He added that Kishida and government officials who had been traveling throughout the country promptly returned to Tokyo.

Sunday is election day for the upper house of the Japanese parliament. Abe, 67, who stood down as prime minister in 2020, campaigned for other members of the ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) but is not a candidate himself.

In Japan, where gun violence is exceedingly unusual, the incident sent shockwaves throughout the nation. 

There is a ban on handguns in the country, and anyone wishing to get or keep shotguns or air rifles must go through proper testing, training, and background checks.

Iwao Horii, an LDP upper house representative for Nara, was standing next to former prime minister Abe when he was shot. 

Horii stated at a press conference, "We heard two loud noises as he was speaking, and he fell immediately thereafter."

According to him, Abe was unresponsive when emergency medical personnel attempted resuscitation.

Local faxes to the media and loudspeakers on election trucks were used to promote Abe's arrival at that place, according to Horii. Before the speech, he stated he was unaware of any threats made against Abe or the LDP.

"This threatens the basic underpinnings of democracy and cannot be overlooked," he warned. 

The country's leading opposition party, the center-left Constitutional Democrats, also denounced the shooting.