Primary school children stabbed outside park near Tokyo
Tokyo: More than a dozen people, including eight primary school children, were injured in a suspected stabbing by a man in a park just outside Tokyo on Tuesday morning, national broadcaster NHK reported.
Sixteen people were injured according to Reuters. However, the exact toll was uncertain, with AFP reporting 19 hurt.
Two children and an adult were without vital signs after the suspected stabbing in Kawasaki city, west of Tokyo, NHK said, citing city authorities.
The suspect was detained on the spot and was badly hurt after stabbing himself in the shoulder, NHK said.
The man, likely in his 40s to 50s, reportedly began slashing at people waiting at a bus stop, NHK said. Two knives, along with some victims, were found in a nearby park, it said.
Violent crime is rare in Japan but there have periodically been high-profile incidents that have shocked the nation.
A stabbing spree on a school bus and a commuter bus in a Tokyo suburb in 2010 injured more than a dozen people.
Two years earlier, a 28-year-old man drove a truck into a crowded pedestrian crossing in Tokyo, killing three people, and then fatally stabbed four more.
More to come
Reuters