Police Recover Parts For Rifles

Police recovered rifle parts from a reservoir after a member of a doomsday cult told them he had ordered them hidden there, Japanese media reported Sunday.

Police suspect that the cult, accused of releasing nerve gas in Tokyo’s subways, was trying to manufacture guns as well as chemical and biological weapons. Handguns are illegal in Japan and rifle ownership is strictly regulated.

Police searching near Kusaki Dam, northeast of Tokyo, also found ammunition and computer disks, Kyodo News Service said.

Yoshihiro Inoue, a senior member of the Aum Shinri Kyo cult, had confessed earlier that he ordered subordinates to dump the rifle parts in reservoirs, Kyodo and the Yomiuri newspaper reported.