JAPAN'S former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has died after being brutally shot twice in a bloody assassination as he made a speech.

The 67-year-old was blasted in the neck and chest by a lone gunman armed with what is believed to be a homemade weapons.

Abe served as Prime Minister for nine years – the country's longest consecutive term – and helped reshape Japan's position on the world stage.

The motives for his murder remain unclear, but police captured Yamagami Tetsuya, 41, after the shooting in Nara, Japan.

Tetsuya is understood to have been a local and formerly saved in Japan's maritime self-defence force.

The shooting has made headlines around the world, causing shock in a country that is one of the world's safest and with some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere.

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Horrifying footage shows Abe collapsing on the street clutching his blood-smeared chest as several security guards ran toward him.

Abe was airlifted to hospital – but was declared dead hours later despite efforts to save him.

He had been giving a speech at a campaign event for his former party, the Liberal Democratic Party, as upper house elections in Japan are due to take place later this week.

And with the cameras trained on him from members of the public and TV stations, the whole incident was captured on video.

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Chilling footage from before h

The former prime minister was not breathing and his heart had stopped, NHK quoted firefighters as saying.

As first responders rushed to save Abe's life, police captured Yamagami Tetsuya, 41, for the alleged attempted murder, according to NHK.

Fuji TV reports that the suspect is an ex-Japanese military native of Nara city, and was formerly a member of the Maritime Self-Defence Force, the country's equivalent of a navy, for three years until 2005.

He was pictured carrying a large homemade weapon, according to police.

Close-ups of the gun appear to show two pipes strapped to a piece of wood.

Fumio Kishida, Abe's replacement as prime minister, was rushed to his office by helicopter for emergency talks with officials.

Addressing the media, he described the shooting as a "heinous act".

He added that the reasons for the "barbaric" shooting were not clear at this moment.

Abe was giving a speech at a campaign event ahead of Sunday’s election for the parliament’s upper house when the shots rang out.

His security team were around him, but the gunman was able to draw his weapon and shoot the former statesman at close range "without being checked".

A video from BNO News showed bystanders rushing to help the former prime minister after he was shot at around 11.30am local time (3.30am BST).

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said of the arrest: “A barbaric act like this is absolutely unforgivable, no matter what the reasons are, and we condemn it strongly."

Abe's younger brother has told reporters in Tokyo that the former prime minister is currently receiving a blood transfusion in hospital as doctors urgently try to save his life.

His wife, Akie Abe, rushed to the hospital to be at her stricken husband's side.

Japan has some of the strictest gun laws in developed nations, and such shootings are incredibly rare.

In 2007, Nagasaki's mayor was shot and killed by a member of the yakuza criminal gang.

The head of Japan's Socialist Party was assassinated with a samurai sword by a right-wing youth during a speech in 1960.

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