Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was evacuated unharmed after person threw a suspected smoke bomb during his outdoor speech in Western Japan on Saturday, local media reported.
According to media reports, a loud explosion was heard during the speech following which the personnel of Japanese police pile on the person who threw the bomb.
The incident occurred at the Saikazaki fishing harbour in Wakayama prefecture, some 65 km (40 miles) southwest of Osaka city.
The incident occurred as soon as Kishida started delivering the speech after touring the harbor, said local broadcaster—NHK. The speech was scheduled for 11:40 am (0240 GMT), according to Kishida’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Kishida was to continue his Saturday afternoon campaign schedule after the incident, the LDP confirmed via its Twitter account.
NHK footage showed crowds running away as several police officers appeared to pin a man to the ground before removing him from the scene. The man appeared to be in his 20s or 30s, media said.
A representative of Wakayama’s prefectural police headquarters told foreign media that he could not answer questions about the incident.
A woman on the scene told NHK that she saw an object flying overhead and “it gave me a bad feeling, so we ran away unbelievably fast. Then we heard a really loud noise. It made my daughter cry.”
Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving leader of modern Japan, was assassinated with a homemade gun last July while campaigning for a parliamentary election, shocking the nation and prompting a review of security for politicians, who routinely press the flesh with the public.
