A Gunman Takes Post Office Employees Hostage in Japan

Japan – A gunman has taken several people hostage inside a post office in Warabi City, Japan, according to Tokyo authorities on Tuesday. 

"At around 2:15 pm, someone took hostages and hid in a post office in the Chuo 5-chome area of Warabi city, the perpetrator carrying a gun," the city authorities informed. 

"Citizens near the scene are urged to follow police instructions and evacuate in accordance with police instructions."

Images on television showed the man in the post office, wearing a baseball cap and a white shirt under a dark coat, with what looked like a gun attached to a cord round his neck.

Violent crime is rare in Japan, in part because of strict regulations on gun ownership. The country has one of the lowest murder rates in the world.

But according to the new report, police has arrested an 86-year-old as a perpetrator about this incident. 

An eight-hour-long standoff ensued with police communicating with the man by phone before finally storming the building and detaining him.

His motive remains unclear but police believe he was involved in an earlier incident at a hospital and have also linked him to a fire at an apartment near the hospital, which is reportedly the suspect's home.

Police said they were investigating the two cases together because of a possibility they are related. They are also looking into a fire that broke out in a building near the hospital around the time of the shooting.