300 locals are ordered to flee after a gunman storms Japan post office

Authorities in Japan stated Tuesday that a suspected gunman has taken an unknown number of people hostage inside a post office, following a suspected shooting in a nearby hospital.

“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 wrote on their website.

“Citizens near the scene are urged to follow police instructions and evacuate in accordance with police instructions”, the statement reads.

According to the reports, some ten post office employees may be inside the building. There is speculation that the man is carrying kerosene with him.

TBS reported that police urged 300 residents in the nearby area to evacuate. A ring of police cars surrounded the post office.

Earlier in the day, police were investigating a shooting incident in the nearby town of Toda, on the outskirts of Tokyo.

In that occurrence, two persons were mildly injured, but it was unclear how they were hurt.

It was also unclear whether the two incidents were connected.

Images on television showed the man inside the post office wearing a baseball cap and a white shirt under a dark coat, and holding what seemed to be a revolver on a rope around his neck.

Violent crime is almost non-existent in Japan, thanks in part to tight gun ownership rules.

Japan has one of the world’s lowest homicide rates.

However, violent crimes, including gun shootings, have made headlines in the country in recent years, most notably the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe in July last year.

Tetsuya Yamagami, Abe’s alleged assassin, allegedly targeted the politician because of his ties to the Unification Church.

In April a man was apprehended after reportedly hurling an explosive at Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a campaign in Wakayama. Kishida escaped unscathed.

The next month, a guy barricaded himself in a building after allegedly killing four people in a gun and knife attack, including two police officers and an elderly woman.

Masanori Aoki, 31, was arrested at his home outside a farm near the city of Nakano in the Nagano region, according to authorities at the time.

The attack murdered two women and two police officers.

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