CHIBA — A man armed with a 50-cm Japanese sword was arrested Friday evening after holding nine people hostage for over 5 hours at a bank in Narashino, Chiba Prefecture, police said.

All the hostages, employees of Keiyo Bank's Tsudanuma branch, were rescued and are safe, police said.

The hostage-taker, thought to be a man in his 40s, was apprehended when police grabbed him as he exited the bank with two hostages at 8:17 p.m.

According to police, the man, wearing a yellow shirt and dark-blue pants, entered the bank and demanded about 7 million yen in cash at around 2:50 p.m.

He first took a female employee hostage, and then rounded up eight more people — including branch manager Haruyoshi Takatsuka, a male and six female employees, police said.

Although seven or eight customers were inside the branch when the man walked in, they managed to flee, police said.

The hostage-taker, estimated to be about 170-cm tall, was seen sitting on a table near the branch manager's desk.

He had forced a female employee to sit nearby and was brandishing the sword close to her, police said.

At around 3:30 p.m., he ordered one of the employees to leave to buy some gasoline.

The man then told police officers outside the branch, "No demands. Go away," according to police. Some 150 police officers had surrounded the two-story building.

According to Keiyo Bank, a midsize regional, the Tsudanuma branch is staffed by 13 full-time and four part-time employees.

A metal shutter blocking the main entrance, which faces a street, had been pulled down, apparently on the demands of the hostage-taker.