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TOKYO: Two soldiers were killed and a third wounded when a fellow recruit opened fire at a training ground in the city centre Japan On Wednesday, the Army said.
“During a live fire exercise as part of the training of the new personnel, one of the SDF candidates shot three individuals,” the Ground Self-Defense Force said in a statement.
The Ground Self-Defense Forces added later, “One more person was confirmed dead among the three who were shot,” after announcing earlier the first death and two injuries.
Earlier government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno It said one of the suspects had been arrested, but gave no other details.
Local police told AFP that the shooter was an 18-year-old candidate for the Syrian Democratic Forces who was immediately arrested by other soldiers.
A local police spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he was accused of the attempted murder of a 25-year-old soldier.
“The suspect shot the victim with intent to kill,” the spokesman told AFP.
National broadcaster NHK reported that the injured were a man in his 50s and two other men in their 20s.
Aerial footage broadcast by the station showed military and civilians gathering around an emergency vehicle and police blocking nearby roads.
Some of them appeared to be interrogators wearing covers over their shoes and hair.
A local resident told NHK that he saw several emergency vehicles rushing into the area around 9:30 a.m. local time (0030 GMT) but had not heard anything before then.
The training range is managed by the Moriyama camp in the area and is a covered facility of over 65,000 square meters.
Violent crime in Japan is extremely rare and gun possession is tightly controlled.
But several high-profile incidents have rocked the country over the past year.
In July 2022, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot dead while campaigning by a man who had allegedly targeted him for his connections to the Unification Church.
accused murderer, Tetsuya YamagamiHe was due to make his court debut this week, but the hearing was canceled after a package was sent to the facility that set off a metal detector.
It is later revealed that it does not contain explosives, but rather a petition signed by thousands asking for a reduced sentence for Yamagami.
He got surprising sympathy from some quarters about the effect his mother’s devotion to the Unification Church had on his family and childhood.
In April, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida escaped unharmed after a man threw an explosive device at him at an election event.
The incident came shortly before Japan hosted the Group of Seven leaders’ summit in Hiroshima and prompted renewed calls for tighter security.
Thousands of policemen were deployed to secure the gathering, which passed without a security incident.
Last month, police in the Nagano district, west of Tokyo, arrested a man after hours of knife wounds and a gunfight followed by a drawn-out confrontation.
The man killed four people, including two police officers, before he was arrested. He is said to be the son of the head of the local city council.
“During a live fire exercise as part of the training of the new personnel, one of the SDF candidates shot three individuals,” the Ground Self-Defense Force said in a statement.
The Ground Self-Defense Forces added later, “One more person was confirmed dead among the three who were shot,” after announcing earlier the first death and two injuries.
Earlier government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno It said one of the suspects had been arrested, but gave no other details.
Local police told AFP that the shooter was an 18-year-old candidate for the Syrian Democratic Forces who was immediately arrested by other soldiers.
A local police spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he was accused of the attempted murder of a 25-year-old soldier.
“The suspect shot the victim with intent to kill,” the spokesman told AFP.
National broadcaster NHK reported that the injured were a man in his 50s and two other men in their 20s.
Aerial footage broadcast by the station showed military and civilians gathering around an emergency vehicle and police blocking nearby roads.
Some of them appeared to be interrogators wearing covers over their shoes and hair.
A local resident told NHK that he saw several emergency vehicles rushing into the area around 9:30 a.m. local time (0030 GMT) but had not heard anything before then.
The training range is managed by the Moriyama camp in the area and is a covered facility of over 65,000 square meters.
Violent crime in Japan is extremely rare and gun possession is tightly controlled.
But several high-profile incidents have rocked the country over the past year.
In July 2022, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot dead while campaigning by a man who had allegedly targeted him for his connections to the Unification Church.
accused murderer, Tetsuya YamagamiHe was due to make his court debut this week, but the hearing was canceled after a package was sent to the facility that set off a metal detector.
It is later revealed that it does not contain explosives, but rather a petition signed by thousands asking for a reduced sentence for Yamagami.
He got surprising sympathy from some quarters about the effect his mother’s devotion to the Unification Church had on his family and childhood.
In April, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida escaped unharmed after a man threw an explosive device at him at an election event.
The incident came shortly before Japan hosted the Group of Seven leaders’ summit in Hiroshima and prompted renewed calls for tighter security.
Thousands of policemen were deployed to secure the gathering, which passed without a security incident.
Last month, police in the Nagano district, west of Tokyo, arrested a man after hours of knife wounds and a gunfight followed by a drawn-out confrontation.
The man killed four people, including two police officers, before he was arrested. He is said to be the son of the head of the local city council.
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