Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was evacuated from an event in the west of the country following hearing an explosion, but is safe.
The incident took place in the port of the city of Wakayama (west) at around 11:30 a.m. local time, when a strong explosion was recorded and a column of white smoke was observed at the place where Kishida’s campaign speech was scheduled and in which there were hundreds of people gathered to listen to him.
“I saw that something was thrown, but I was able to escape and at that time I might hear the explosion,” said the prime minister, who also pointed out that despite the incident “he will continue with his electoral acts scheduled for today and tomorrow.”
“We are going to hold an important election for our country, and we must work together to keep it going,” Kishida said in another campaign speech held this Saturday near the Wakayama railway station, approximately one hour and ten minutes following the incident, to which he also referred in his speech.
The Japanese authorities arrested a man at the scene of the incident as allegedly responsible for launching the explosive object, which according to eyewitnesses and images captured by the media, was a metal cylinder that might be a pipe bomb.
Agencies
