One suspect was arrested after someone threw an apparent explosive device at Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a campaign event in Western Japan.
The prime minister, who was not harmed in the chaos, was visiting Saikazaki port in Wakayama prefecture on Saturday to support his ruling party’s candidate in a local election. He’d been gearing up to deliver his speech when a person in the crowd threw a “suspicious object” at the Japanese leader, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters.
It wasn’t immediately clear what the edevice was or how many the suspect had. One local news agency, Kyodo, said it “appeared to be a smoke bomb” while others described it as a pipe bomb with a delayed fuse.
Police immediately tackled a young man in a surgical mask as smoke started to fill the air, prompting screams and frantic efforts to flee from the crowd.
TV footage shows Kishida initially standing with his back to the crowd. His security detail then suddenly points to the ground near him, where the cylindrical silver object had landed, causing the prime minister to whip around, a glimmer of panic visible on his face.
He was safely evacuated from the scene and continued to campaign on Saturday.
While no one was injured, the incident is reminiscent of the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was shot in July last year during a campaign speech in the western city of Nara.
The violence rocked Japan, a nation with very little gun violence.
The attack Saturday comes ahead of nationwide local elections, including several by-elections for vacated parliamentary seats. Voting is scheduled for April 23.
A motive remained unclear and an investigation is ongoing.