A man believed to have a gun was holed up in a post office in a Tokyo suburb on Tuesday and holding one hostage after releasing another, in an episode that was unsettling in Japan, where gun violence is extremely rare. An employee inside the post office, in Warabi city, called the police at around 2:15 p.m., saying there was a gunman inside, according to Taira Masuda, a spokesman for the police headquarters in Saitama Prefecture. Around 7:15 p.m., NHK, a public broadcaster, showed footage of the woman in her 20s walking out of the post office without injury. Another official, the mayor of Toda, said on social media that a man had fired a handgun at Toda Chuo General Hospital and fled on a motorcycle. In the broadcaster’s footage, it appeared that the woman who was released on Tuesday evening bowed as she left the post office.

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Persons: Taira Masuda, Masuda, Toda Organizations: NHK, General Hospital Locations: Tokyo, Japan, Warabi, Saitama Prefecture, Toda city