Shinzo Abe Death Highlights: Japan goes to Upper House elections; people pay respect at Abe’s residence

Shinzo Abe Death News Live Updates: Japanese voters went to polls on Sunday for the upper house election under the shadow of the former prime minister’s death. According to Reuters, the latest opinion polls suggested a strong showing for the ruling bloc led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, considered to be a Abe protege.

Abe’s body was brought back to his residence in Tokyo, where people, including Kishida and other top officials, gathered Sunday to pay tribute. Abe was shot dead while campaigning for the upcoming elections, his body has been taken to Tokyo from Nara city in western Japan. The 67-year-old leader was shot twice by an ex-military man with a homemade gun. Abe died due to loss of blood after a bullet hit an artery under his collarbone, Japanese media house NHK reported, citing police officials. They said that the bullet went through Abe’s upper left arm and damaged a blood vessel under his collarbone.

Meanwhile, Tetsuya Yamagami, the 41-year-old man who killed former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, believed that Abe was linked to a religious group he blamed for his mother’s financial ruin. He spent months planning the attack with a homemade gun, police told local media on Saturday.