Saitama Prefectural Police are on the hunt for a gunman after a taxi driver was shot and injured late Wednesday night in the city of Kawaguchi in the prefecture.
The suspect, described as a man in his 50s or 60s, was wearing a black cap, glasses, a white mask, a black short-sleeved shirt and long pants.
He had gotten into the cab near Akabane Station in Tokyo's Kita Ward and fired shots from the back seat upon exiting in Kawaguchi.
According to prefectural police, the man threatened the 72-year-old male driver around 11:40 p.m., demanded money, then fired what seemed to be a gun and fled the scene.
A nearby convenience store manager called emergency services and reported the driver's injuries. Local residents also reported hearing noises resembling firecrackers and seeing the man punching the door from inside the cab.
According to the prefectural police, the driver sustained abdominal injuries and was taken to the hospital. He is severely injured — he sustained organ damage that is expected to take at least four weeks to recover from. However, his injuries are not life-threatening, police said.
Police are treating the incident as a case of attempted robbery and murder as they continue to search for the suspect.
The incident took place about 400 meters north of Kawaguchi Station on the Keihin-Tohoku Line, and is surrounded by condominiums and an elementary school.
“The part that scares me the most is that he hasn’t been caught yet,” said a concerned mother who accompanied her first-grader son to school. “I’ll be picking my child up after school,” she added.
Another local resident, who is 35, expressed his shock, saying, “That’s a street that a lot of people are on.”