The former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe has died, aged 67, after being shot while making a speech in the western city of Nara.

Abe, the country’s longest-serving prime minister until he resigned in 2020, was flown to hospital by helicopter after the attack. It was the first assassination of a sitting or former Japanese premier since the days of prewar militarism in the 1930s.

In an emotional speech, Japan’s current prime minister, Fumio Kishida, said Abe had led the country “with great leadership”, and he was “lost for words”.

“I have great respect for the legacy Shinzo Abe left behind and I pay the deepest condolences to him,” Kishida said. Other Japanese politicians expressed shock at the violence in a country in which political violence is rare and guns are tightly controlled.

Footage and accounts broadcast by Japanese media showed Abe’s speech interrupted by two loud bangs – possibly from a shotgun – and smoke, with Abe stumbling to the ground after the second shot.