SAITAMA: A suspected gunman in Japan’s Saitama prefecture has taken at least two people hostage inside a post office after wounding two others in a shooting at a hospital.
The government of the city of Warabi, just north of Tokyo, said in a statement on Tuesday (Oct 31) that 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 were taken hostage, local media reported. A woman in her 20s later walked out of the building into police custody, national broadcaster NHK said.
The suspect, who appeared to be in his 80s according to NHK, was earlier involved in a shooting at a hospital in the neighbouring city of Toda and then fled the scene to the nearby city of Warabi in the same prefecture.
Two people, reportedly a doctor and a patient, were injured at the hospital, according to local media.
“After 1pm, I heard a woman shouting ‘Someone, please come,’ and a nurse told me, ‘Stay away from the windows and keep your head low,'” a man in his 60s who was inside the hospital told broadcaster NHK.
“Around 2pm, I looked inside the doctor’s office and saw a pool of blood next to an examination table. I didn’t hear a gunshot. But a nurse said she heard two gunshots,” the man said.
Source: CNA
