National Nov. 09, 2009 - 05:45AM JST ( 3 )

KUMAMOTO —

A couple in their 60s and a man in his 20s were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide at a farmhouse in Ueki, Kumamoto Prefecture, on Sunday, after emergency services received a report of an apparent suicide, police said.

Emergency services received a call at about 4.30 p.m., in which the caller said there appeared to be a man hanging from a beam on the property. Police rushed to the home and found a man and woman in their 60s lying on the floor. They were identified as Koichi Hirochi, 67, and his wife Tomiko, 63. They were already dead, police said. In addition to the three, Ryuko Takanashi, 55, a niece of Hirochi, was found unconscious on the premises with serious injuries, they said.

A man in his 20s was found hanging from a beam, and police have received information that he is Chinese and was an apprentice at the property surrounded by rice fields.

Police are confirming his identity and are treating the incident as a murder-suicide, given the external injuries on the bodies of the other three people and blood found at the scene.

Wire reports