A 39-year-old unidentified man killed two people, including a schoolgirl, and injured 15 in Kawasaki town near Tokyo, on Tuesday before stabbing himself to death, Japan Today reported. Most of the injured are girls from a private Catholic elementary school in Kawasaki.
Eyewitnesses said the accused was heard shouting “I’m gonna kill you” during the attack. The injured victims were taken to four different hospitals.
Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the attack heartbreaking, and said children should be kept “safe at all costs”. “I’ve instructed the related ministers to take immediate action to ensure the children’s safety in going to and leaving school,” he told reporters, according to CNN.
The police found two knives at the site of the attack and are trying to ascertain the attacker’s identity. Officials from the Catholic school said they would hold a press conference later in the day, according to Japan Today.
Confirming the two deaths, Deputy Director of Nippon Medical School Musashi Kosugi Hospital Kiyoshi Matsuda said that the 12-year-old schoolgirl and a 39-year-old man had succumbed to their injuries, AFP reported.
A local, identified as 25-year-old Matsumoto, said that he went outside after hearing the girls scream. “I saw a man lying on the street,” he told the news agency. “I also saw a girl hunched over on the ground. There were also five or six girls, maybe they were the ones who screamed... There was blood all over them.”
A “woman in her 40s and three girls suffered serious injuries”, said an official at the St Marianna University School of Medicine. “They will go through surgery for the injuries, mainly to their heads and necks. After that, they will be transferred to the ICU,” said Takehito Otsubo, the hospital’s assistant director.
Meanwhile, United States President Donald Trump, who is in Japan on an official visit, extended his condolences to the victims. “On behalf of the first lady and myself, I want to take a moment to send our prayers and sympathy to the victims of the stabbing attack this morning,” Trump said. “All Americans stand with the people of Japan and grieve for the victims and for their families.
The mass stabbing that took place nearly 13 miles outside of Tokyo is a rare attack in a country with the lowest violent crime rates. Japan has a strict gun control policy and violent gun-related crimes are unusual. However, the country has witnessed a few high-profile stabbing attacks in 2016 and 2018.
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