A suspected gunman has taken an undisclosed number of people hostage inside a post office in Japan, authorities said Tuesday.
“At approximately 2:15 pm today (0515 GMT), a person has taken hostages and holed up at a post office in Chuo 5-chome area of Warabi city… The perpetrator is possessing what appears to be a gun,” the city’s authorities said on their website.
The government of the city of Warabi, located just north of Tokyo, said in a statement an unidentified number of “hostages” were taken by a man “in possession of something like a handgun”.
At least two female post office workers in their 20s and 30s are among the hostages, according to local media.
Images on television showed the man inside the post office in a baseball cap and a white vest under a dark coat, with what looked like a gun attached to a cord around his neck.
The man, between 40 and 50 years old, was earlier involved in a shooting incident at a hospital in the neighbouring city of Toda and later fled the scene, municipal authorities there said.
Violent crime is rare in Japan, largely because of its strict regulations on gun ownership.
The country has one of the lowest murder rates in the world.
A suspected gunman has taken an undisclosed number of people hostage inside a post office in Japan, authorities said Tuesday.
“At approximately 2:15 pm today (0515 GMT), a person has taken hostages and holed up at a post office in Chuo 5-chome area of Warabi city… The perpetrator is possessing what appears to be a gun,” the city’s authorities said on their website.
The government of the city of Warabi, located just north of Tokyo, said in a statement an unidentified number of “hostages” were taken by a man “in possession of something like a handgun”.
At least two female post office workers in their 20s and 30s are among the hostages, according to local media.
Images on television showed the man inside the post office in a baseball cap and a white vest under a dark coat, with what looked like a gun attached to a cord around his neck.
The man, between 40 and 50 years old, was earlier involved in a shooting incident at a hospital in the neighbouring city of Toda and later fled the scene, municipal authorities there said.
Violent crime is rare in Japan, largely because of its strict regulations on gun ownership.
The country has one of the lowest murder rates in the world.
