Japanese police on Friday arrested the man suspected of killing four people, including two police officers, in a knife-and-gun attack in central Japan’s Nagano prefecture.
The suspect, who had been hiding in a farmhouse in Nakano (northeast of the city of Nagano) since Thursday afternoon, was arrested around 4:30 am (Thursday 8:30 pm in Lisbon). the local police.
A woman who was injured in the attack but could not be immediately rescued succumbed to her injuries, bringing the death toll to four. the spokesperson added. On Thursday afternoon, another woman, believed to be in her thirties, was stabbed in the back by the suspect.
This man, described by authorities as a maniac, shot and killed two police officers who had arrived at the scene, before taking refuge in the house that belonged to his father, who would become a local mayor of Nakano. This is reported by the news agency Kyodo News.
The local police had specified on the night that two women managed to leave the house for the arrest of the suspect, one of them her own mother, Kyodo said.
One of the witnesses said he was working on a farm when shortly after 4pm on Thursday (8am on a Thursday in Lisbon) a woman came running into the road asking for help before she fell.
“Behind her was a man in camouflage with a long knife, who stabbed her in the back,” he added to Japan’s NHK station.
This 72-year-old witness also stated that he had called the emergency services.
According to NHK, the man “received” the police with gunfire, leaning the gun against a window of one of the police vehicles and firing two shots.
Residents of the Nakano area – northeast of Nagano city center where the events took place – were urged by local authorities to stay at home.
Voluntary killings are very rare in Japan, where carrying firearms is highly regulated.
Japan was rocked last year by the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was killed with a homemade gun during an election speech in Nara, in the western part of the country.
Last month, a young man was arrested after throwing an improvised explosive device at the acting prime minister, Fumio Kishida, who was on his way to a small fishing port in Wakayama (west) department after escaping the attack unharmed.
Source: DN
