'Yakuza' gunman in Japan wounds three, kills himself

TOKYO (AFP) - – A gunman in Japan who said he was a gangster shot and wounded three people Friday and, after being trapped by police, killed himself with a bullet to the head, police and reports said.

The man, reported to be 62 years old, had claimed he was a member of a yakuza crime syndicate and opened fire around 2:30 pm (0530 GMT), wounding the three people, one of them seriously, police said.

The gunman and his victims at a real estate agency in Yokohama city south of Tokyo had argued about a debt dispute, reports said.

When police closed in on the gunman, he holed himself up for about two hours before he killed himself, Jiji Press said quoting police sources.

"We stormed the building and found the man on the floor with a revolver, bleeding from his right ear," a Kanagawa Police spokesman told AFP. "The injured were all taken to hospital, but one of them had lost consciousness."

Television footage showed a black-clad tactical police squad in helmets and bullet-proof vests near the building. Later officers were seen carrying the man on a stretcher into an ambulance as fearful residents looked on.

The daylight shootings occurred in the city's business and residential area near a subway station, where shops and restaurants were temporarily closed.

Gun crimes are rare in Japan, where illegal possession of a firearm carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years.