Tokyo CNN –
Japanese police on Tuesday arrested an 86-year-old suspected gunman who barricaded himself in a post office with two hostages after wounding two people at a hospital earlier in the day.
The man was arrested after an hours-long standoff in the town of Warabi in Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo, police told CNN.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department sent its special hostage investigation teams to the post office on Tuesday afternoon local time after reports that the suspect had holed up there and authorities were unable to contact two female postal workers.
According to public broadcaster NHK, neither woman was injured in the incident. One woman left the post office about five hours after the incident began, and the other escaped several hours later, NHK reported.
Police confirmed to CNN that a woman in her 20s who was being held hostage is now safe.
The hostage crisis and confrontation at the post office came just hours after a shooting at a hospital in the nearby town of Toda that left a doctor and a male patient injured.
Police believe the 86-year-old was involved in this earlier incident. According to police, the shooting occurred at 1 p.m. local time and the suspect fled the hospital before barricading himself in the post office about 1.5 kilometers away.
Toda Mayor Fumihito Sugawara confirmed on social media that a man “suspected of carrying a weapon” had barricaded himself in the post office and warned residents not to go near the area.
A fire broke out in a residential building not far from the hospital early on Tuesday. According to NHK, investigators believe the shooter lived in one of the apartment units. According to NHK, no one was injured in the fire.
Gun violence is extremely rare in Japan. The country has one of the lowest gun crime rates in the world due to its strict gun ownership laws.
Last year, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot dead in the city of Nara as he gave a campaign speech, an attack that shocked the nation.
This is a developing story and will be updated.