Police officers control traffic near the entrance to the Ground Self-Defense Force’s Hino basic firing range in Gifu on June 14 after three members were shot. A cadet has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. (Video footage by Tomoaki Hosaka)

Photo/Illutration Ground Self-Defense Force members gather on June 14 at the entrance to the Hino basic firing range where a shooting incident occurred earlier in the day. (Kazuhiro Nagashima)

A teenage cadet of the Self-Defense Forces was arrested after three of his colleagues were shot, two fatally, with an automatic rifle during a training drill in Gifu Prefecture on June 14, sources said.

The dead members were 52 and 25 years old and belonged to the Ground SDF’s Camp Moriyama in nearby Nagoya. The other member, also 25, is being treated for injuries at a hospital.

Police arrested the 18-year-old cadet on suspicion of attempted murder.

“This sort of incident should never have happened in an organization that handles weapons,” Gen. Yasunori Morishita, head of the Ground Staff Office, said at a June 14 news conference in Tokyo.

Morishita said the cadet entered Camp Moriyama in April to begin basic training. One of the members who was shot was an instructor.

A GSDF official said the June 14 firing drill was the last of five for new recruits.

Around 9:15 a.m., a call was made to the emergency 119 number, reporting a shooting incident and injuries at the SDF’s Hino basic firing range in Gifu city.

The range is about 7 kilometers east of Gifu Station, and a number of tourist sites, including Gifu Castle, are located nearby.

A residential area lies adjacent to the firing range, and some residents went outside or looked from their windows at the range after the shooting was reported.

Media vehicles converged on the scene, forcing police to control traffic.

The Imperial Japanese Army opened the base in 1907, and it was confiscated by the U.S. Amy after the end of World War II.

SDF members began using the 6.7-hectare firing range in 1960.