Three dead in Japan hostage blast
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Police say the attacker, who died in the blast, doused the office with kerosene.
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VIDEO
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CNN's Rebecca Mackinnon reports on the hostage taking and subsequent explosion.
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TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Three people have been killed and more than 20 others injured in an explosion at a Japanese office building after a knife-wielding man took several hostages and then set light to the area.
The attacker, identified as 52-year-old Noboru Beppu, entered the building in the city of Nagoya at around 10 a.m. (0100 GMT) on Tuesday morning, armed with a knife and carrying a flammable liquid, Kyodo news agency reported.
Demanding back wages, Beppu took eight hostages from the courier company, but later released seven of them.
Ten minutes later, shortly after 1 p.m., a blast rocked the fourth-floor office of Nagoya-based Keikyubin Co., shattering windows and engulfing the floor with flames.
Black smoke was seen billowing from the building and witnesses described bystanders bleeding from glass shards that rained down from the explosion.
Kyodo quoted police as saying they believe the man had doused the office with kerosene during the three-hour standoff.
The fire killed the hostage-taker, an office branch manager and a police officer. Another 25 people were injured by the blast and subsequent blaze, including several police officers.
The suspect earlier injured a 26-year-old man in the neck with his 35-centimeter knife. The victim was taken to hospital.
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TV pictures showed windows blown out by the blast.
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It is not clear if the man was an employee of the company or worked on contract.
In December last year, Japan was the scene of two hostage-taking incidents, one at a building contractor's office and another at a bank.
Observers have blamed the incidents on a decade-long slump in the world's second-largest economy.
Nagoya is located in central Japan about 170 miles (270 km) west of Tokyo.
