A police officer shot a man dead early Saturday morning in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, after the man apparently attempted to flee the scene of a traffic accident he had caused.

At around 3:40 a.m., police received a telephone report that a man had caused an accident on National Route 17 in the city and was attempting to get away, apparently by trying to stop trucks and take them over.

The police found the man near the site of the accident, they said. Officers attempted to question him but he resisted and smashed the windshield of a police car, they said.

One of the officers then fired two warning shots. The man got into another nearby police car, tried to start it and drive it at the officer, the police said.

The officer fired another shot at the man, who was sitting in the driver's seat at a distance of about 4 meters. The shot penetrated the windshield and hit the man in the throat, they said. The man was taken to a hospital but died shortly afterward.

The police said the man had a driver's license identifying him as a man in his 50s from Tokyo. They are trying to confirm his identity.

"Using a gun was legitimate but it was indeed unfortunate that the suspect died," said Katsuki Kono, the head of Nagaoka Police Station.