Man dies defending others in bullet train knife attack
A KNIFE attack on a Japanese bullet express train near Tokyo has left one passenger dead and two others injured, police said.
Officers said they apprehended Ichiro Kojima, 22, after storming the train when it made an unscheduled stop at Odawara station, west of Tokyo, following an emergency call that there was a knife-wielding man on board.
The Nozomi train was heading to Osaka from Tokyo and the stabbing took place at around 10pm local time.
Kojima was found on top of a man lying unconscious on the floor of the isle with a knife stuck in his thigh when officers arrived.
The 38-year-old victim was also stabbed in the neck and later pronounced dead. He was named as Kotaro Umeda, from Hyogo Prefecture.
Police said two female passengers in their 20s sustained injuries to the neck and other parts of the body, though their conditions were not life-threatening.
One of the women told police Mr Umeda had tried to stop the attacker when he began threatening her with a knife.
Odawara police official, Satoshi Oiye, said the suspect admitted to police that he had attacked the passengers.
Police are continuing to investigate his motives, Mr Oiye said.
But Japanese media reported that Kojima said he carried out the assaults because he was irritated and felt like attacking anyone and that he had picked victims at random, armed with “multiple bladed objects”.
Mr Oiye said investigators found a machete believed to belong to the suspect at the scene of the attack, though it was not known how it was used.
The train was carrying more than 800 passengers at the time of the incident. TV footage showed passengers desperately trying to escape to other cars and witnesses said passengers were in tears.
Japan is known as one of the world’s safest countries, and violent random attacks are rare.
In 2005, however, a man set himself alight on a bullet train, killing himself and another passenger and injuring almost 30 others, triggering calls for stricter security measures on bullet trains.
Mr Umeda’s family issued a statement through a lawyer, saying: “We do not have words to express the sorrow of suddenly losing a loved one. We would like to be left alone for now.”