Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was evacuated from an outdoor venue in Wakayama where he was delivering a speech after a pipe-like object, likely a smoke bomb, was thrown towards him, Kyodo and Jiji news reported on Saturday.
NHK reported that an "explosion-like" sound was heard at the scene but Kishida was not hurt in the incident.
Last year, Kishida's predecessor Shinzo Abe was killed by a gunshot while giving a speech in Nara, some 100 kilometers north of Wakayama.