Firearms mishap at Defense Ministry HQ
A soldier accidentally fired a handgun inside the Defense Ministry’s Joint Staff Office yesterday:
The 44-year-old sergeant who belongs to the GSDF’s police unit fired the shots after mishandling the gun in a room at the headquarters in Tokyo’s Ichigaya area around 1:50 p.m., according to the office.
The incident took place in the basement of the building, and luckily no one was injured.
Update: More details from the Yomiuri’s article.
According to the ministry’s Joint Staff Office, the 44-year-old sergeant squeezed the trigger of a 9mm automatic handgun at about 1:50 p.m. Tuesday without realizing the gun was loaded. He was on duty together with a colleague at the time, guarding the entrance of the Central Command Post on the ministry building’s first basement level.
The sergeant was quoted as saying: “I was due to take a shooting test the following day, so I fired the gun imagining it [was the test]. I thought the chamber was empty.”
