Police arrest man who barricaded himself in building in Aomori Pref

Police in Noheji, Aomori Prefecture, have arrested a man in his 40s who barricaded himself inside a health improvement center on Wednesday afternoon.

According to police reports, a staff member placed an emergency call at around 4:10 p.m., saying that a man with a knife was on the premises, Sankei Shimbun reported. The man, whose name has not been released by police, barricaded himself alone in a room in the building for nearly two hours before being arrested around 5:45 p.m. after police talked him into coming out.

The health center was safely evacuated, and there were no injuries reported in the standoff.

Witnesses said the man appeared calm despite declaring that he was “going to die.”

The incident occurred on a street corner lined with a nursery school and retirement homes about 1.2 kilometers southwest from Kita-Noheji Station on the JR Ominato Line.

© Japan Today