Child dead in Japan stabbing rampage
T WO people i nclud i ng a schoolg irl were stabbed to death and more than a dozen injured in Japan on Tuesday in a ra mpage t hat ta rg e t e d c h i l d r e n a s t he y waited for a bus.
The attacker, a man in his 50s who has not yet been identif ied, crept silent ly up behind a group of children at the bus stop and slashed ra ndom ly at t hem before fata l ly stabbi ng hi mself i n t he neck.
Police said an 11-year-old schoolg i rl na med Hana ko Kuribayashi and a 39-yearold parent, identified as gover n ment of f ic i a l S atosh i Oyama, died in t he attack, which shocked a cou nt r y where v iolent crime is rare.
Seventeen more people, mainly young children, were i n j u r e d , a c c o r d i n g t o aut horities who had prev iously given t he schoolgirl’s age as 12.
Koji Sh i ma z u of t he St Marianna University School of Medicine, told AFP t hat one woman in her 40s and t h r e e s c hoolg i r l s had to undergo su rger y for k ni fe wounds to t he head a nd neck.
“It i s a ver y ha r row i ng ca se. I feel st rong a nger,” Ja p a n’s P r i me Mi n i s t e r Shinzo Abe said in telev ised remarks.
“I of fer my heartfelt condolences to the v ictims and hope t he i nju red recover quick ly.”
A loca l man liv ing nearby, who ident i f ied hi msel f a s Matsumoto, 25, said he went o u t s i d e a f t e r h e a r i n g screams.
“It’s hard to describe what it was like, how it sounded. It wasn’t g i rls hav i ng f un, it was a sou nd t hat was absolutely not normal,” he said.
“I saw a man ly ing on the s t r e et . I a l s o s aw a g i r l hunched over on the ground. There were a lso f ive or si x girls, maybe t hey were t he ones who screamed . . . There was blood a ll over them.”
The attack occurred during the busy early morning
commute as workers headed to their offices and children to school. Fire department officials said they received the first emergency calls shortly before 8am (5am Cambodian time) on Monday.
The scene of the attack was still swarming with emergency personnel hours later, wit h t h ree pol ice va ns pa rked around t he spot to block it from view.
Emergency workers set up an orange medical tent to treat the wounded, and ambulances and fire engines were parked nearby.
Teiko Naito, principal of the school’s elementar y section, said in an emotional, televised news conference: “A man carrying knives in both his hands came from a convenience store and slashed children in the queue one-by-one.”
Assistant principa l Satoru Shitori, who was on the scene, said the attacker crept silently up behind the children before launching his attack.
T he d i rec tor of Ca r it a s Gakuen, Teturo Saito, said 18 of her pupils were involved.
“The grief is very great. I sincerely pray for those who died and hope the injured recover quickly . . . The students now have deep pain in their soul. We will do our best to offer menta l hea lt hca re,” Sa ito said.
T he blood shed c a me a s Donald Trump wrapped up a state visit to Japan, and the US president offered his “prayers and sympathy” to the victims a s he met t roops out side Tok yo.
Standing aboard a Japanese militar y ship, he said that “all A mer ica ns sta nd w it h t he people of Japa n a nd g r ieve for t he v ictims and for t heir fa milies”.
A local resident, who declined to give his name, said children attending the Caritas school lined up for the bus at the site every day.
“If you live in this neighbourhood, ever ybody knows that t hese k ids a re t here,” t he 66-year-old said.
“I’ve been in this area for a long time, I cannot believe that somebody targeted this bus and targeted these small children.”
Violent crime is extremely ra re in Japan, and children often travel to and from school alone.
The countr y has famously strict gun control regulations and gun crime is unusual, but there have been a few highprofile stabbing attacks.
In 2018, a man was arrested in central Japan after stabbing one person to death and injuring two others aboard a bullet train, an attack that prompted new security measures on the famed rail service.
And in 2016, a man stabbed 19 people to death at a disabilit y centre south of Tokyo in what he described as a mission to rid the world of people with mental illness.