Gunman barricades self in post office after 2 injured at hospital

A man with a firearm barricaded himself in a post office near Tokyo on Tuesday after two people were injured at a nearby hospital following gunshot-like sounds, police said, Kyodo reports. 

There was also a report of at least one gunshot at the Warabi post office in Warabi, Saitama Prefecture, where the man, possibly in his 50s to 70s, was moving around inside, and the police urged locals to evacuate the area and stay alert.

The police are investigating a possible connection between the man who barricaded himself there around 2:15 p.m. and the incident at the Todachuo General Hospital in Toda, about 1.3 kilometers north.

A doctor in his 40s and a patient in his 60s were injured there but are conscious, they said. The two are believed to have been in an examination room on the ground floor when the incident occurred around 1:15 p.m.

The police said they received an emergency call from the hospital saying, "A man holding what appeared to be a handgun rode off on a motorbike."