KUMAMOTO, JAPAN - Three people were found dead and another seriously injured in a farmhouse in Uekimachi, Kumamoto Prefecture, apparently after a dispute between a family and a trainee, according to police.

The police are treating the incident as a murder case.

At about 4:45 p.m. Sunday, a local fire department received a call saying that a man appeared to have hanged himself in the farmhouse of Koichi Hirochi, 67. Police found the injured person and the three bodies lying in the garden and elsewhere.

According to the police, the body of Koichi's wife, Tomiko, 63, was found lying in a work hut, while the body of Wang Bao Quan, a trainee from China who lived on the farm, was found on the ground inside a shed. A rope was hanging nearby and police believe Wang, 22, committed suicide by hanging himself.

Tomiko's niece, Ryuko Sakanashi, 55, of Aso in the same prefecture, was found unconscious and bleeding in the garden. She was taken to hospital.

The police said there were no signs of a break-in at the house, and they believe there had been a dispute between Wang and the Hirochis.

The police will wait for Sakanashi to recover before they ask her about what happened.