A man with a knife stabbed at least 10 passengers on a commuter train in Tokyo on Friday and was arrested by police after fleeing, fire department officials and news reports said.
NHK public television said one passenger was seriously injured. It said the suspect left his knife behind as he fled and was later arrested in Tokyo. The Japanese capital is currently hosting the Olympics, which end on Sunday.
The Tokyo Fire Department said nine of the 10 injured passengers were taken to nearby hospitals, while the tenth was able to walk away. All of those injured were conscious, fire department officials said.
A witness at a nearby station where the train stopped said passengers were panicking and rushing out of the carriages. Another witness told NHK that he saw passengers smeared with blood come out of the train, as an announcer asked for doctors and passengers carrying towels.
NHK said the suspect walked into a convenience store and said he was tired of running away, and the store manager called the police after seeing blood stains on the man’s shirt. It said the suspect is in his 20s.
The stabbing occurred near Seijogakuen station, according to railway operator Odakyu Electric Railway Co.
The police declined to comment and no other details were immediately available.
One million cases
Japan reached the milestone of one million coronavirus cases on Friday, domestic media reported, as infections soared in Tokyo and other urban areas as the country struggled to contain the Delta variant.
New cases in Tokyo hit 4,515, the second highest after Thursday’s record 5,042, while the neighbouring, populous prefecture of Kanagawa saw its cases soaring to more than 2,000, quadrupling in less than two weeks.
Infections in Osaka, the biggest city in the country’s west, also rose to a record-breaking 1,310, in a sign the pathogen is quickly spreading outside Tokyo.
The total number of cases since the pandemic began last year is now above one million, tarnishing the country’s early success in containing the disease.
While the contagion appears to quickly spread from the capital to other regions, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga struck a cautious tone on expanding a state of emergency to the entire country.
