Who is the man suspected of assassinating Japan’s Shinzo Abe?

Police retrieved several improvised weapons from the apartment of the suspected attacker. WARNING: Graphic content

Tetsuya Yamagami is tackled to the ground at the scene of the shooting.

Early in Shinzo Abe’s campaign speech, a man in a grey short-sleeved shirt and face mask applauds from around 30 feet behind the former prime minister.

The man walks closer. He points a thick black object just over a foot long toward the speaker.

After a loud boom and a puff of smoke from the object, Mr. Abe turns around. The man keeps pointing the improvised weapon. After a second explosion the man is shoved to the ground by security guards.

Who the attacker was, what motivated him and how he had such a weapon are the major questions surrounding an incident that has stunned Japan.

Tetsuya Yamagami is tackled to the ground at the scene of the shooting.

Mr. Abe was declared dead hours after the attack. Doctors say the second shot pierced his heart. Video footage recorded from the scene shows the attack in detail.

Police named the suspect as Tetsuya Yamagami, a 41-year-old who lives in Nara, where the attack took place. Investigators say Mr. Yamagami told them he had a grudge against a group that he believed Mr. Abe was connected to.

They provided no further details but said Mr. Yamagami told them he fired the shots and took a bus to the site of the attack. It wasn’t clear if Mr. Yamagami had a lawyer.

Inside Mr. Yamagami’s studio apartment in an eight-story building, police said they found several other improvised weapons. At the scene of the shooting, they retrieved a crude shotgun-type weapon made from metal tubes lashed together with tape.

Several hours after the incident, police carried out what they said was an explosive device from the apartment.

Shinzo Abe lies on the ground after being shot during a speech.

The haul is particularly alarming in Japan because of strict regulations on owning weapons. Japanese law limits gun ownership to the police and the military, and for exhibit purposes. It also allows for gun licenses for hunting and sports shooting, but only after rigorous background checks.

Police said Mr. Yamagami has no fixed occupation. The Defence Ministry said a person of the same name served in the navy, known as the Maritime Self-Defense Force, from 2002 to 2005.

Fuku Yoshida, a 30-year-old elementary schoolteacher who lives a few minutes walk from Mr. Yamagami’s apartment, said he wasn’t concerned because a gun was used to kill someone in Japan but because it was done by someone who looked quite normal.

People pray at a site outside of Yamato-Saidaiji Station where Mr Abe was shot.

“What scared me is not a gun but something that may affect Japan’s politics or democracy,” he said.

Mizuki Onoe, a 25-year-old who also lives near Mr. Yamagami’s apartment, said: “A gun is not something ordinary people can possess but it can be made. It’s scary.”