Suspected gunman takes hostages in Japanese post office

A suspected gunman has taken at least two people hostage in a post office in Japan after wounding two other people in a shooting at a hospital, officials said.

TOKYO — A suspected gunman has taken at least two people hostage in a post office in Japan after wounding two other people in a shooting at a hospital, authorities and media said on Tuesday.

The government of the city of Warabi, just north of Tokyo, said in a statement that an undetermined number of hostages had been taken by a man “in possession of something like a handgun.”

At least two female post office workers in their 20s and 30s were taken hostage, media reported.

The man, between 40 and 50 years old, was earlier involved in a shooting at a hospital in the neighboring city of Toda and then fled the scene, municipal authorities there said. Two people were injured at the hospital, media reported.

Images broadcast on television showed a man wearing a track suit top and white shirt standing just inside the post office brandishing what looked like a pistol. Several police officers wearing body armor were stationed nearby.