A woman and two police officers were killed Thursday by a madman in a rural area of Nagano Prefecture, Japan, where such crime is extremely rare, several local media reported. According to these media, which also reported one wounded, the suspect, who would be a farmer in his thirties, was still holed up inside a building in the evening.
The suspect's mother was able to leave the building, according to Japan's Kyodo news agency. Asked by AFP, the local police said that two women had been able to leave the building: one around 20:35 (23:35 GMT) and the other shortly after midnight.
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I was working on a farm when just after 16 p.m. a woman ran from the road saying 'help me' and then she fell," a witness told NHK. "Behind her was a man in camouflage with a long knife, who stabbed her in the back," he added. The 00-year-old witness said he then called for help, and neighbors tried to revive the victim by performing a heart massage, to no avail.
Shots fired at close range
According to NHK citing the police, the madman then greeted police officers who had just arrived on the scene by shooting them with a shotgun. The police were inside their vehicle, and the madman allegedly placed his gun against a window and fired twice, according to NHK.
According to Kyodo news agency, another man was injured but could not be rescued for now because he was too close to the building where the suspect took refuge. Residents around Nakano - northeast of the central city of Nagano - were called by local authorities to self-isolate. Intentional homicide is very rare in Japan, where the carrying of firearms is highly regulated.
Japan was rocked last year by the murder of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was killed with a homemade firearm while delivering an election speech in the western city of Nara. And last month, a young man was arrested after throwing an improvised explosive device at incumbent Prime Minister Fumio Kishida who was traveling to a small fishing port in the western department of Wakayama. Mr. Kishida escaped unscathed.