ဂ်ပန္ဘဏ္ အႏုၾကမ္းစီးသူ အား ရဲမွထိန္းသိမ္း

TOKYO: Japanese police said Friday they had stormed a bank and arrested a man who took five people hostage, with local media reporting he had demanded Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's cabinet resign.

In a televised news conference, a police spokesman said the hostage-taker, identified as Koji Nagakubo, was arrested on suspicion of taking the five captive.

The hostages, including one released earlier, were all in protective custody safely, the spokesman said, while local media said one of them was slightly injured.

The 32-year-old man began the siege Thursday afternoon at the Zoshi branch of the Toyokawa Shinkin Bank in central Aichi prefecture.

Wielding a survival knife, he took four employees and a female customer captive and was demanding the Noda cabinet step down, as well as asking to speak to journalists, local media said.