(Recasts first paragraph, adds details) TOKYO, April 20 (Reuters) - A gangster shot and killed a fellow gang member and then holed up in an apartment in a Tokyo suburb, police and media said on Friday, just days after the fatal shooting of the mayor of Japan's city of Nagasaki. There were no hostages, but residents near the apartment, belonging to a gang member in Machida, on the west side of the capital, had been evacuated, police said. Riot police wearing helmets and bulletproof vests and carrying shields were still stationed near the apartment some seven hours after the incident began. "I heard three shots, bang, bang, bang. We were told by police to stay inside," a woman living nearby told Nippon Television by telephone. Police said the man had fired nine shots from the apartment, with one hitting a police vehicle, but no one had been injured. Earlier, the suspect fatally shot a gangster outside a convenience store in a nearby city and then fled, Kyodo news agency said. Police confirmed that the victim was shot dead but did not say whether he belonged to a crime syndicate. A senior member of a crime syndicate talked to the gunman on the phone and urged him to surrender, media said. "I would like to express my apologies by killing myself," the gunman was quoted as saying. But the suspect later stopped answering his mobile phone, Kyodo news agency and public broadcaster NHK said. Children at nearby schools were met by parents who escorted them home, many holding hands, TV footage showed. Japan has strict gun control laws and legal firearms are mostly in the hands of hunters and police, but the shooting of the Nagasaki mayor by a gangster on Tuesday has prompted lawmakers, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, to call for even tighter supervision. "The incidents involving guns followed the fatal shooting of the Nagasaki mayor and it is truly regrettable and grave," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told reporters. The government is set to hold a task force meeting on gun control next week, and media reports have said it aimed to submit a bill to parliament to revise gun control legislation by the end of the current session on June 23. Gun-related crimes have been rare and on the decline, and the number of shootings fell to a record-low 53 last year, with most involving members of organised crime. Of those shootings, 36 were thought to have involved gangsters. Only two resulted in deaths.
