Japanese police are today looking for the motives of an 86-year-old man who yesterday, Tuesday, held hostages at a post office, while earlier he allegedly opened fire inside a hospital.

Tsuneo Suzuki was arrested yesterday in the city of Warabi, suburb of Tokyo, where he held two women hostage for several hours. The two hostages managed to get out of the post office safe and sound before the police intervened.

According to local media, the pensioner had complaints against the particular post office, but also against a doctor in a nearby hospital. Suzuki was also identified as the perpetrator of a shooting incident at the same hospital earlier yesterday that left two people injured.

At the post office, the 86-year-old “told the police he wanted to see a certain person”a spokesman for the Saitama Ward police said, without elaborating.

Suzuki brought a firearmtwo knives and two bottles of liquid

Suzuki carried a firearm which he had tied with a rope around his necktwo knives, an 18 liter container and two bottles containing some liquid, according to several media outlets.

The media also reported that the 86-year-old had set fire to the apartment where he lived.

Neighbors of Suzuki, who lived alone, said he was a lovable person. “I had never seen a gun or anything dangerous” in his home, a friend of his said, quoted by the Asahi newspaper.

In Japan more than one in ten people are aged 80 or overwhile many of them live alone, without having contact with their relatives.

Violent crime is rare in the country, where the homicide rate is lowwhile the legislation on gun ownership is one of the strictest in the world.

However many armed attacks have recently shocked Japanese public opinion, such as the July 2022 assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with an improvised firearm during a campaign rally.

In April, the current Prime Minister of the country, Fumio Kishida, was the target of an attack with an improvised explosive device, also during a pre-election event. Kishida escaped the attack, but two other people were slightly injured.