US News

SHOCKING FOTOG-SLAY

These chilling photos show Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai lying on a street in Myanmar after being fatally shot by government security forces.

Nagai, 50, who worked for the Japanese video news agency APF, was among nine people killed yesterday when security forces fired automatic weapons into a crowd of thousands of pro-democracy protesters in Yangon.

He is the first foreign victim of the deadly clashes, sparked when the government doubled fuel prices in mid-August.

Before succumbing to the shot through his chest, Nagai can still be seen holding up a video camera in his hand as a soldier points a rifle at him.

In the distance, protesters run for their lives.

The pictures of Nagai’s last moments were taken at about 1 p.m. yesterday, as he lay dying on the wet street, surrounded by debris and bloody sandals.

Lucie Morillon, the Washington director of Reporters Without Borders, said it appeared that Nagai was left to die in the street.

“We are appalled by the death of this photographer – pictures clearly show him being shot by a soldier even though he was clearly a journalist, holding a camera in his hand,” she told The Post.

A colleague told The Times of London that Nagai was relentless in pursuing a story. His mantra was: “Someone has to go to the places nobody wants to go.”

hasani.gittens@nypost.com