The Hindu : International : 7 killed in Tokyo stabbing spree

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7 killed in Tokyo stabbing spree

— PHOTO: AP

Nightmare on the streets: Rescue workers from Tokyo Fire Department gather to help injured people in Akihabara district, known as Electric Town, on Sunday. A man went on a stabbing spree in the shopping district, knifing at least 14 people.

TOKYO: A man on a murder mission ploughed into pedestrians with a truck in a crowded Tokyo neighbourhood on Sunday and then stabbed 17 people in three minutes, killing at least seven in a grisly attack that shocked Japan.

The lunchtime assault — on the seventh anniversary of a mass stabbing in Japan in 2001 — sent thousands of pedestrians into a panic in Tokyo’s crowded Akihabara district, an electronics and video game area. A 25-year-old man, Tomohiro Kato, was arrested with blood on his face. Police said Kato provided no motive for the attack — other than he wanted to murder strangers. “The suspect told police that he came to Akihabara to kill people,” said Jiro Akaogi, a spokesman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. “He said he was tired of life. He said he was sick of everything,” he added.

The violence began when he crashed a rented, two-tonne truck into pedestrians. Kato jumped out and began stabbing the people he had knocked down with the truck, and then turned on horrified onlookers, said police.

The police confirmed seven deaths — six men and one woman — but they could not say whether the victims had died of injuries from the truck or were stabbed to death. Reports said the attacker grunted and roared as he slashed and stabbed at shoppers crowding a street.

“He was screaming as he was stabbing people at random,” said an unidentified witness. Another witness said the suspect dropped his knife after police threatened to shoot him.

Amateur videos showed policemen overpowering the bespectacled, bloodied suspect. Amateur video taken five minutes after the rampage showed shoppers helping victims and a man screaming, “Ambulance, ambulance!” At least 17 ambulances rushed to the scene, and rescue workers feverishly tended to victims in the blood-pooled street. — AP

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