President Yoon Suk-yeol on Friday expressed condolences over the death of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was fatally shot by a gunman during a campaign event.

“I express condolences and consolation to the bereaved family and the Japanese people over the death of the longest-serving prime minister in Japan‘s constitutional history who was a respected politician,” Yoon said in a message to Abe’s wife Akie Abe.

Abe was pronounced dead in the afternoon, hours after he was shot while making a campaign speech on a street in Nara, western Japan.

Yoon condemned the shooting as an “unpardonable act of crime” and expressed deep sorrow and shock, according to the presidential office.

The foreign ministry also voiced grief and delivered condolences to Abe‘s bereaved family and the Japanese people.

“Our government strongly condemns the shooting as a violent criminal act that is unacceptable in any case,” ministry spokesperson Choi Young-sam said in a statement. (Yonhap)