Crowd at fishing harbour in western Japan scattered in panic after explosion as police subdued a man at the scene.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was evacuated unharmed after what appeared to be a smoke bomb was thrown at him while he was making a speech in the Wakayama prefecture in western Japan.
Footage on Japanese television showed a disturbance in a crowd gathered at the Saikazaki fishing harbour where Kishida was on the campaign trail in support of a ruling party candidate. He was about to speak when there was a blast and white smoke, according to the video.
The prime minister took cover as people in the crowd scattered in panic. Kishida was unhurt and police subdued a man who looked to be in his 20s or 30s at the scene, according to public broadcaster NHK.
Saikazaki is about 65km (40 miles) southwest of Osaka city.
“I was stunned. My heart is still beating fast,” a woman at the scene told NHK.
There was no immediate official confirmation of the incident, with local police declining to comment.
Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving leader of modern Japan, was assassinated last July while campaigning for a parliamentary election, shocking the nation and prompting a review of security for politicians.
Kishida had just finished sampling fish at the site and was about to deliver remarks in support of the ruling party’s candidate in upcoming lower house by-elections when the incident took place.
“That something like this happened in the middle of an election campaign that constitutes the foundation of democracy is regrettable. It’s an unforgivable atrocity,” Hiroshi Moriyama, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)’s election strategy chairman, told NHK.
Abe’s alleged assassin, Tetsuya Yamagami, reportedly targeted him over his links to the Unification Church and the incident sparked revelations about the connection between the group and Japanese politicians.
Abe was relatively unprotected and speaking on a street in western Nara when he was killed.
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