SEOUL, South Korea – A gunman shot and killed three people Wednesday in a Sejong City convenience store that he then set on fire before fleeing, South Korean police said. The suspect was later found dead.
A hunting rifle was recovered near the suspect's body a few kilometers (miles) from the store, and another rifle was found in what appeared to be his vehicle, said a police official in Sejong City who refused to be named, citing office rules. It wasn't immediately clear how the suspect died.
The other dead were a father and son linked to the family that owned the store, and another man who'd been living with the elder man's daughter, the official said. Police don't yet know where the daughter is.
The suspect had gotten the rifles from a police station in the nearby city of Gongju in the central part of South Korea hours before the shooting, the police official said.
South Koreans can obtain licenses for hunting rifles, but they are required to keep the weapons at police stations and use them only during legal hunting periods. The police official in Sejong said officials had yet to confirm whether the suspect had a hunting license or whether the rifles were his.
Shooting incidents are rare in South Korea, which tightly controls gun possession, although there have been a spate of shooting deaths among soldiers. Every able-bodied South Korean man has to serve about two years in the military because of tensions with rival North Korea.
