No fewer than four people have been killed in a rare shooting and stabbing incident involving a 12-hour stand-off with police in Japan.

Japanese authorities, however, said on Friday, May 26, they arrested a 31-year-old man in a rural area for the incident.

The suspect had holed up in his house after shooting two police officers who arrived at the scene in response to a report that a woman had been stabbed, the head of the Nagano prefectural police told a televised press conference.

The suspect, who is the son of the head of the Nakano city council, used what appeared to be a hunting rifle in the shooting, he added.

The two police officers and the woman were taken to hospital and pronounced dead within hours, the police chief, Iwao Koyama, said.

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“This is a heinous crime that has aroused great fear in the residents of the prefecture and society at large,” Koyama added.

The police said another elderly woman also died after an apparent knife attack.

She had been lying on the ground outside the house since Thursday afternoon and police had been unable to get to her.

According to Reuters, the police detained the man around 4:30 a.m. (1930 GMT) on Friday, about 12 hours after the first call to emergency responders.

He was arrested for the suspected murder of one of the police officers, Koyama said.

Shootings are extremely rare in Japan, where gun ownership is tightly regulated and anyone seeking to own a gun must go through a rigorous vetting process.

The suspect had a licence for a hunting rifle, the head of the National Public Safety Commission told a separate briefing.

The suspect’s mother and aunt who were in the house with him escaped on their own, Koyama said.

Few other details were known, including the suspect’s motive.

The Star