Japanese police on Tuesday surrounded a post office where a man with a gun was holed up, and said the case may be linked to an earlier apparent shooting at a nearby hospital in which two people were wounded.
Saitama Prefectural Police said two men – a doctor in his 40s and a patient in his 60s – were wounded after blasts resembling gunfire were heard at a general hospital in the city of Toda, just north of Tokyo. Police did not give details of how exactly the two people were injured.
The two victims are both conscious and their wounds are not life-threatening, police said. Kyodo News agency said the two were believed to be inside a consultation room on the first floor when they were attacked.
Saitama police are also investigating another case involving a man carrying a handgun holed up inside a post office in the city of Warabi, just north of Toda. They said the two cases are being investigated together because of a possibility that they involve a same suspect.
Reports said that the suspect in the hospital case had sped away on a motorbike.
Police said the alleged gunman at the post office could be seen through a glass window at cash machines.
A number of post office staff safely escaped from the building, while two of them may still be inside but they are believed to be safe and may not have been seen by the gunman, police said.
Local media NTV reported that at least one woman in her 20s and another woman in her 30s were inside the post office, citing police sources. Police were talking to the man by telephone, NTV reported.
The Warabi administration said on social media that there were hostages.
“At approximately 2:15pm 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.
“Citizens near the scene are urged to follow police instructions and evacuate in accordance with police instructions.”
The Yomiuri daily reported that around 10 post office staff members may be inside the post office, which is a few miles from Tokyo.
The newspaper also reported there is speculation that the man may be carrying kerosene with him, without citing sources.
Police urged 300 residents in the nearby area to evacuate, broadcaster TBS said. A number of police cars were surrounding the post office.
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Images on television showed the man inside the post office, reported to be possibly in his 80s, in a baseball cap and a white shirt under a dark coat, with what looked like a gun attached to a cord around his neck.
In a third suspicious case, police were also investigating a fire that broke out at an apartment building near the hospital in Toda just around the time of the shooting.
Violent crime is vanishingly rare in Japan, in part because of strict regulations on gun ownership.
Japan has one of the lowest murder rates in the world.
But recent years have seen violent crimes, including gun attacks, make headlines in the country, most notably the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe in July last year.
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Abe’s accused assassin, Tetsuya Yamagami, reportedly targeted the politician over his links to the Unification Church.
In April a man was arrested for allegedly hurling an explosive towards Prime Minister Fumio Kishida as he campaigned in the city of Wakayama. Kishida was unharmed.
The following month a man holed up in a building after allegedly killing four people, including two police officers and an elderly woman, in a gun and knife attack.
Masanori Aoki, 31, was taken into custody at his house outside a farm near the city of Nakano in the Nagano region, police said at the time.
Two women and two police officers were killed in the attack.
Additional reporting by Associated Press