Global Courant
The attacker, an 18-year-old teenager who wanted to join the Army of that country, was arrested. There is an injured hospitalized.
Two soldiers dead and one wounded was the tragic balance left this Wednesday by a shooting that a young aspirant starred in a military firing range located in central Japan.
“During an exercise with live ammunition as part of a new personnel training, a candidate for the Self-Defense Forces (FAD) shot three people,” the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force said in an official statement.
Initially, the Japanese government indicated that three members of the FAD, the country’s army, had been wounded at the Hino indoor firing range in Gifu. However, the report confirming two fatalities was later released. The state of health of the third person, who remains hospitalized, is still unknown.
The Hino indoor soccer field in Gifu, Japan. (Kyodo News via AP)
Meanwhile, the author of the shots was identified as a member of the FAD. After the crime, the young man was detained, according to government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno, without providing further details.
For their part, the local police informed the AFP news agency that the shooter is an 18-year-old teenager who was aspiring to join the military, which means that he received basic training for three months before trying to join the national troops. “He fired a rifle at the victim with the intent to kill,” he added.
NHK national television reported that the injured man is in his 50s, while one of the two dead is 24 years old. In the transmission of that medium, soldiers and civilians were seen gathered around a military vehicle while the police closed the nearby roads.
One of the fatal victims was 24 years old. The 18-year-old shooter was arrested. (Kyodo News via AP)
Violent crime in Japan is highly unusual, but several high-profile incidents have rocked the country in the past year. In July 2022, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated while giving an election speech by a gunman.
Last April, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida escaped unharmed after a man threw an explosive device at him at another campaign event. This incident occurred shortly before the G7 summit in Hiroshima and prompted demands from society to intensify security in the country.
Just three weeks ago, a man armed with a hunting rifle and a knife left four dead, including two policemen, after stabbing two women and later barricading himself at his home in Nagano, west of Tokyo.
It was the first time since 1990 that a violent event had killed more than two officers, in a country with one of the lowest homicide and firearms incident rates in the world.
With information from agencies.
ES
