Osaka cop accidentally fires handgun during check

OSAKA -- An Osaka Prefectural Police officer accidentally fired a single round from his service pistol while inspecting the weapon, the force revealed on Sept. 22.

No one was reported injured in the incident.

The 41-year-old inspector in the mobile investigation unit failed to confirm that the pistol was not loaded -- a violation of internal regulations.

According to the officer's unit, the shot was discharged in an office on the fourth floor of the prefectural police's headquarters in the western Japan city of Osaka at around 10:40 a.m. on Sept. 22. The inspector was apparently pointing the pistol at the floor when he pulled the trigger to test the mechanism after disassembling and then reassembling the weapon.

The bullet hit the floor, ricocheted into a nearby iron cabinet, and fell to the floor again. There were three other unit members in the room. The inspector said that he did not think the pistol was loaded.

(Japanese original by Haruka Ito, Osaka City News Department)