Gunman kills 3, commits suicide in South Korea

A gunman has been found dead after shooting three people dead at an apartment in a South Korean city in an apparent murder-suicide, police sources say.

The shooting incident happened in the city of Hwaseong, which is located south of the capital Seoul, on Friday morning.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a police official from the city said the victims included a policeman who was one of the first officers to arrive at the scene as well as an elderly couple, adding that the suspect is believed to be the brother of the husband.

The suspect was found dead with a gunshot wound in what police believes to be a suicide case.

According to the police official, the murder weapon was said to be a hunting gun, which had been retrieved by the gunman from a nearby police station about an hour before the shooting.

The daughter-in-law of the dead couple managed to escape by jumping out of a second-floor window to alert police.

The deadly shooting follows a similar incident in the city of Sejong on Wednesday, when a gunman opened fire at a convenience store and killed three people before apparently killing himself.

Shooting incidents are rare in South Korea, where private gun ownership is banned.

South Koreans can obtain licenses for shotguns and air rifles for the purpose of hunting animals and hunters are required to keep their firearms at police stations and use them only during legal hunting periods.

It was not immediately clear whether the gunmen in both recent shooting cases owned the gun or had a proper license for it.

South Koreans legally owned about 160,000 guns as of January, a figure that included hunting weapons and self-defense tools such as gas-emitting guns, according to figures from the National Police Agency.