.gif)
A middle-aged man killed himself after fatally shooting his mother-in-law and two other people with a shotgun Tuesday in a bar in western Japan, police and reports said.
The shooting occurred at around 8:00 pm (1100 GMT) in Hibikino City, outside Osaka, an Osaka prefectural police spokesman said.
"The suspect fired the shotgun inside the bar and then shot himself on a street outside," the official said by telephone.
The gunman was later identified as an Osaka city government employee, Yasuhisa Sugiura, 49, Kyodo news agency reported.
The three victims included his mother-in-law Yoshiko Tanaka, 66, and bar employee Tatsuya Fukui, 23. Bar owner Hiroto Uehara, 49, was critically wounded in the attack and died later, Kyodo said, quoting police.
Sugiura and his mother-in-law were at the bar to talk about a divorce, according to witnesses, Kyodo reported.
He got excited and left in the middle of the discussion, returning later with a shotgun, it said.
Gun crimes are rare in Japan, where illegal possession of a firearm carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
