Shooting in Japan and stabbing in Nagano reportedly kills 3, including 2 police officers

Tokyo – Three people were killed on Thursday, including two police officers, in a shooting and stabbing attack in Japan’s central Nagano region, according to state broadcaster NHK and other Japanese media.

Earlier, police said a masked man carrying a gun and knife locked himself in an apartment building in Nagano after attacking at least four people.

Officers had rushed to the scene after a pedestrian reported a commotion in the town of Nakano in the central Japanese prefecture of Nagano.

A witness told state broadcaster NHK that a woman fell while being chased by the suspect, who then stabbed her with a knife and shot two police officers as they arrived at the scene.

Three of the victims were taken to a nearby hospital, including the wife, and were later pronounced dead, police said.

Police described the suspect as a man wearing camouflage, a hat, mask and sunglasses, Kyodo News reported. Municipal authorities have urged residents in the area to stay at home.

Japan has one of the lowest rates of gun violence in the world. There were more than four firearm homicides in the United States per 100,000 people in 2019, compared to almost zero in Japan.

As CBS News’ senior foreign correspondent, Elizabeth Palmer reported last year, Japan’s strict private gun ownership laws have surprising origins in the United States. When the United States occupied Japan after World War II, it disarmed the country. The Americans shaped the legislation that largely removed firearms from the hands of Japanese civilians.