Reports: Attacker Kills 5, Injures 12 in Tokyo's Akihabara
At least five people were killed and 12 injured in an attack on shoppers in Tokyo'a Akihabara on Sunday, local media said.Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
At least five people were killed and 12 injured in Tokyo's Akihabara electronics district on Sunday after a man hit pedestrians with a truck, got out and then began stabbing people, local media reported.
The incident took place on Chuo dori, the main street that cuts through the heart of the world-famous shopping district, at around 12:30pm. On Sundays the road is closed off to traffic to become a pedestrian area and is typically crowded with shoppers and those out the enjoy the area, which has a large number of shops specializing in electronics, computer hardware and software, manga comic books and computer games.
A 25 year-old man from nearby Shizuoka prefecture was arrested at the scene, according to local media reports. The reports said he was carry a survival knife when arrested and had hired the truck and driven to Tokyo. Local TV showed a man said to be the suspect subdued on the ground by local police before being bundled into a police car.
Such public attacks aren't common in Japan, but the attack comes seven years to the day that a man entered an elementary school in Osaka in western Japan and killed eight children with a knife. The attacker, Mamoru Takuma, was executed in 2004 for the crime.
On Sept. 8, 1999, a man killed two shoppers and injured others in a stabbing spree in the Ikebukuro area of Tokyo.