Local media say an unidentified man attacked the former Japanese prime minister in the western city of Nara.

Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been taken to hospital after apparently being shot during a campaign speech in the western city of Nara, according to media reports.

The NHK broadcaster said on Friday that its reporter on the scene heard “something that sounded like a gunshot and saw Abe bleeding”.

He collapsed at around 11:30am (02:30 GMT).

Kyodo News said Abe was attacked by an unidentified man on a street in Nara.

The agency said the former prime minister was not conscious and appeared to be in cardiac arrest.

Robert Power, an Irish citizen who is visiting Nara, said people are “confused” and “baffled” and there are four helicopters overhead.

“The city is crazy,” he told Al Jazeera. “We were told Shinzo Abe was just shot here. Helicopters everywhere.”

“People are just glued to the TV.”

More soon…