Young suspect arrested after ‘bang’ explosion forces Kishida to evacuate campaign site.

A 24-year-old man from Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, was found to be a suspect who was arrested on the spot for throwing an object presumed to be a bomb at Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who was about to campaign on the street. The suspect is exercising his right to remain silent, and it is said that two barrel-shaped items that appear to be explosives were confiscated at the scene. After Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida completed a tour of Saikazaki Port in Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture, located in the southern part of Kansai, Japan, at 11:30 am on the 15th, before starting his speech on the street, he suddenly heard a loud explosion. Prime Minister Kishida was immediately evacuated and was confirmed to be unharmed, and from 12:40 noon, he delivered a speech in front of Wakayama Station as scheduled. Prime Minister Kishida visited Wakayama Prefecture to support the by-election of the House of Representatives Wakayama District 1 scheduled for the 23rd. In July of last year, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot and killed while campaigning for the House of Councilors elections, and the Japanese archipelago was engulfed in fear. Japan (NHK) Broadcasting said, “The police arrested the suspect at the scene of the incident and checked his driver’s license, and it turned out to be a 24-year-old man living in Hyogo Prefecture (Kansai region).” We are checking further on this,” he said. There are many cases in which the Japanese family name and first name are read differently as soon as they are written in Chinese. The broadcast continued, “At the site, two barrel-shaped items that appeared to be explosives were confiscated. One of them exploded at the scene, and the other appears to be in the possession of the suspect.”

Broadcast footage from the time of the incident shows that a man who appears to be a suspect was caught by the police, followed by a loud explosion and smoke rising nearby. A woman at the scene told the broadcast, “A silver barrel was thrown. She was glowing there and after a while there was a loud noise,” she said. A city council member at the scene also said, “A barrel-shaped silver object flew about 2m in front of where I was. It emitted smoke, and Prime Minister Kishida left the scene surrounded by bodyguards.” Another male witness said, “The young man threw something, and people around him screamed and ran away. And there was an explosion. It was so scary,” he said. Prime Minister Kishida, who had escaped to the Wakayama Prefectural Police Headquarters, went ahead with his afternoon speech in front of Wakayama Station as planned. In a speech at 12:40 in the afternoon, Prime Minister Kishida said, “There was a loud explosion in the morning speech hall. The police are investigating the details, but we apologize for causing concern to many people.” Correspondent Kim So-yeon, Tokyo/[email protected]