Two persons, one of them a policeman, were killed in Japan Tuesday, officials said. A man stabbed the officer, seized his gun and shot a security guard dead in a rare violent crime.

A police spokesman told AFP the attacker had stabbed the officer at a police station in in central Toyama prefecture, then grabbed his gun and fled the scene.

The officer, 46-year-old Kenichi Inaizumi, was confirmed dead at a hospital, the police spokesman added.

The attacker then shot dead Shinichi Nakamura, a 68-year-old security guard working nearby, according to local police.

Nakamura was rushed to a hospital, but also died of sustained wounds.

The suspect himself was seriously wounded after being shot in the stomach by police as they tried to arrest him. He was then detained.

Police said “no other people were injured” in the attack, a relatively rare incident in Japan, which prides itself for a low crime rate.

Gun crime is especially low in Japan where weapons are strictly regulated.

According to the latest figures from the national police agency, there were only 22 incidents of a gun being fired in 2017, resulting in three deaths and five injuries. afp