A man was shot dead and his wife was seriously wounded apparently by two intruders in the couple's home in Tokyo's Katsushika Ward early Monday, police said.

The victim, Yoshitaka Kawakami, 33, told rescuers when he was being taken to a hospital that he had been "shot by two foreign-looking men."

According to police, a neighbor of Kawakami's reported to police around 2:20 a.m. Monday that he had heard the sound of shots fired in the house.

Officers who rushed to the house found Kawakami and his 32-year-old wife, Naomi, both lying bleeding on the floor of their bedroom.

Kawakami, who suffered two bullet wounds in the neck, was pronounced dead just before 9 a.m. after he was taken to a nearby hospital.

His wife had sustained serious head and shoulder wounds.

The couple's 9-year-old son, who was sleeping in a separate room, was unhurt.

According to police, the two assailants appear to have broken into the couple's first-floor bedroom and shot Kawakami at close range.

Police found two spent .30 caliber cartridges and one bullet left at the scene.

There were no signs that the house had been burglarized, and investigators suspect that the intruders bore a grudge against Kawakami, police officials said.

Kawakami's house is in a residential area near National Route No. 6. His family lived in the first-floor portion of a two-story apartment building. Nobody lived on the second-floor rooms.

Until about six months ago, Kawakami's parents occupied the house.