Three hurt in rare Japan shooting

A gunman in Japan has taken his own life after wounding three people in Yokohama, outside Tokyo, police said.

The gunman had taken refuge in a building in a residential area which the police surrounded.

A police spokesman said one of the injured men was in a critical condition and the other two were lightly wounded.

Japanese media reported the violence appeared to be gang related. Shootings are rare in Japan, where there are strict gun control laws.

Police named the gunman as Kenji Hayashi, a 62-year-old member of the Inagawa-kai, a large Japanese organised crime group.

He had identified himself to police after they surrounded him.

Police entered the building when Mr Hayashi stopped talking and they found him dead.

"We stormed the building and found the man on the floor with a revolver, bleeding from his right ear," AFP news agency quoted a police spokesman as saying.

What gun violence there is in Japan tends to be associated with the Japanese mafia, known as yakuza.