OSAKA-- A 37-year-old female nurse was shot dead by a former patient at a hospital in the city of Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on Thursday afternoon, according to local police.
Following the shooting at Senboku Jinnai Hospital, the man proceeded to stab 37-year-old doctor Hitoshi Jinnai in the abdomen with a knife before stabbing himself in the neck in a suicide bid, investigators said.
The attacker was then subdued and was undergoing medical treatment as of early Thursday evening.
Both he and the doctor were in serious condition, investigators said.
Police identified the attacker as 57-year-old Kazuya Umano.
Umano told investigators he was a former gangster who had received treatment at the hospital. They plan to arrest him for murder.
The nurse was identified as Ayumi Tanaka. Investigators said the man entered the first-floor hospital office and demanded to see the hospital's deputy director.
He shot the nurse as she walked into the room, they added.
Investigators said Umano, a resident of Sakai, was admitted to the hospital in November but was forced to leave last month.
He was suffering from a liver ailment and had been an outpatient for about seven years. He had been receiving intravenous drip treatment on an almost daily basis.
The hospital is a 269-bed general hospital.