Two members of Japan’s military were killed and another wounded today when a colleague fired an automatic rifle at a shooting range in Gifu Prefecture (central), according to the latest military toll.

“The death of another person has been confirmed,” the ground army said in a terse statement, while earlier it spoke of one dead and two wounded.

According to Gifu police, contacted by AFP, the new recruit alleged to have carried out the attack, who was arrested, is 18 years old.

The incident unfolded around 09:00 [σ.σ. τοπική ώρα· περί τις 03:00 ώρα Ελλάδας] at the firing range, according to government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno, who said earlier that “three members of the armed forces were injured.”

The Japanese public broadcaster NHK also reported that the young man opened fire with an assault rifle. According to a spokesman for the armed forces, the young man allegedly fired at least eight times.

Violent crime is generally rare in Japan, but the country has been rocked by several attacks in the past year, including the July 2022 assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and an attack on Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in April, both in election campaigns. their appearances.

Prime Minister Kishida emerged unscathed from the April attack.

Security measures, especially for politicians, have been stepped up since the incidents and thousands of police were deployed to Hiroshima last month for the G7 summit.

Also last month, police arrested a man accused of killing four people, including two police officers, in a knife and shotgun attack in Nagano, west of Tokyo.