A Shikoku man stabbed three nurses and a policeman Friday at a hospital in Ehime Prefecture before being subdued, local police said, adding that the victims were being treated and remained conscious.
The nurses were stabbed in the chest and abdomen and the officer in the left arm, but their wounds were not life-threatening, the police said.
The stabbings took place at Matsukaze Hospital in Shikokuchuo, east of Imabari. The facility mainly offers psychiatric services.