TOKYO (Reuters) - The mayor of the Japanese city of Nagasaki was shot and critically wounded on Tuesday, and police have arrested a member of a criminal syndicate as a suspect, officials said.
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Itcho Ito, 61, seeking re-election for a fourth term in Sunday's election, was shot by a man in front of his campaign office just before 8:00 p.m. (1100 GMT), a city official said.
Ito was taken to hospital by ambulance after being shot more than once in the back, Nagasaki police said, adding the mayor was undergoing an operation.
The police told a news conference they had arrested Tetsuya Shiroo, 59, a senior member of gang affiliated with Japan's largest crime syndicate, the Yamaguchi Gumi, on suspicion of attempted murder, and confiscated a revolver he had with him.
The motive for the shooting was unclear, but Shiroo was upset at the city's handling of a traffic accident four years ago in which Shiroo's car was damaged as it passed by a public works construction site, public broadcaster NHK said.
NHK reported that Ito's lungs and heart had stopped functioning, and other TV footage showed the mayor lying face down with his eyes closed as paramedics performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
"I hope that the truth be revealed through vigilant investigation by authorities," Kyodo news agency quoted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as saying after news of the shooting.
STRICT GUN CONTROL
Japan has very strict gun control laws and firearms are mostly in the hands of "yakuza" gangsters or hunters.
NHK footage showed police subduing the suspect and putting him in a car. Later, investigators gathered evidence after the shooting while security guards took up posts at the scene.
"It looked as if the mayor was limp on a stretcher. A medic was giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation," Kyodo quoted a 22-year-old male university student as saying at the scene.
In 1990, then-mayor Hitoshi Motoshima was shot by a member of a right-wing group after making comments that Emperor Hirohito should be held liable for war responsibilities.
"Whatever the reason, violence cannot be tolerated," Motoshima told a TV program after Ito was shot.
"It's a disgrace for Nagasaki."
Nagasaki, on the southernmost main island of Kyushu, was the second city to suffer an atomic bombing by the United States on August 9, 1945.
Ito had previously been critical of U.S. nuclear arms policies and has been a strong advocate of Japan sticking to its decades-old ban on nuclear arms.
Last year, on the August 9 anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city, Ito criticized North Korea for their nuclear programs and had harsh words for the United States for failing to halt nuclear proliferation.
In October, 2002, lower house member Koki Ishii was stabbed to death by a member of a right-wing group in front of his house in Tokyo, the last known murder of a politician in the country.
(Additional reporting by Linda Sieg and Elaine Lies)
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Hey GW, F@ck it, throw out everything I have said about Gun Control. Lets arm everyone. But I mean everyone.
