Japan knife attack is country's worst mass killing in generations

AT LEAST 19 people have been killed and dozens injured at a centre for disabled people near Tokyo in the worst mass killing in generations in Japan.
An ambulance moves past in front of the facility. (Kyodo News via AP)An ambulance moves past in front of the facility. (Kyodo News via AP)
An ambulance moves past in front of the facility. (Kyodo News via AP)

Investigators say they are still working to determine the full circumstances of the attack, but a man has turned himself in to police.

An employee alerted police to the incident at around 2.30am local time on Tuesday saying “something horrible” was happening at the Tsukui Yamayuri-en (Tsukui Lily Garden) centre in the city of Sagamihara, just west of the capital.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

A man, identified by Government officials as Satoshi Uematsu, turned himself in at a police station in Sagamihara about two hours later. Police said he left the knife in his car when he entered the station. He has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and trespassing.

A police officer talks with visitors in front of the facility. (Kyodo News via AP)A police officer talks with visitors in front of the facility. (Kyodo News via AP)
A police officer talks with visitors in front of the facility. (Kyodo News via AP)

Japan’s national broadcaster NHK said he was 26 and another broadcaster, NTV, said he was upset because he had been sacked.

A Kanagawa district official told a news conference that Uematsu entered the building at about 2.10am by breaking a window on the first floor of a residential building at the centre.

Shinya Sakuma, head of the local authority’s health and welfare division, said Uematsu had worked at the centre until February.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Police said there were several casualties but did not provide any numbers but the Sagamihara City fire brigade said 19 people died in the attack and that figure was confirmed by doctors at the scene.

Ambulance crew and police officers  are seen outside the facility. (Kyodo News via AP)Ambulance crew and police officers  are seen outside the facility. (Kyodo News via AP)
Ambulance crew and police officers are seen outside the facility. (Kyodo News via AP)

A woman who lives opposite the centre told NHK: “I was told by a policeman to stay inside my house, as it could be dangerous. Then ambulances began arriving and blood-covered people were taken away.”

Television footage showed a number of ambulances parked outside the centre, with medical and other rescue workers running in and out.

A White House statement expressed shock at the “heinous attack” and offered condolences to the families of those killed.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

US National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said “there is never any excuse for such violence, but the fact that this attack occurred at a facility for persons with disabilities makes it all the more repugnant and senseless”.

Ambulance vehicles and fire trucks are seen outside a facility. (Kyodo News via AP)Ambulance vehicles and fire trucks are seen outside a facility. (Kyodo News via AP)
Ambulance vehicles and fire trucks are seen outside a facility. (Kyodo News via AP)

Mass killings are relatively rare in Japan, which has extremely strict gun control laws. In 2008, seven people were killed by a man who drove a lorry into a crowd of people in central Tokyo’s Akihabara electronics district, then stabbed passers-by.

Fourteen were injured in 2010 by an unemployed man who stabbed and beat up passengers on two public buses outside a railway station in Ibaraki district, about 25 miles north east of Tokyo.

Chikara Inabayashi, who lives near the site of Tuesday’s attack, said he was shocked such an outrage had happened in the quiet, semi-rural area near Mount Takao, a mountain popular with hikers.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I never imagined such a horrible thing happening,” he said. “I was astonished, that’s the only thing I can say.”

Police officers stand guard in front of the main gate of the Tsukui Yamayuri-en. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)Police officers stand guard in front of the main gate of the Tsukui Yamayuri-en. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
Police officers stand guard in front of the main gate of the Tsukui Yamayuri-en. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People living nearby described the centre as a friendly place whose staff and residents joined in community events.

Akie Inoue said her teenage daughter Honoka knew the suspect from events at the centre when she was at primary school.

“I was surprised to hear that the culprit was a person from this neighbourhood,” she said.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“My daughter knew the culprit, I mean, they were acquainted. They would greet each other when they would meet and she tells me that he was a very kind person. We are all very shocked.”

Honoka said: “He had a cheerful impression. He was the kind of person that would greet you first.”

Japan’s top government spokesman, chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga, said: “This is a very tragic and shocking incident where many innocent people became victims.

Police investigators work at the Tsukui Yamayuri-en, a facility for the disabled where a number of people were killed and dozens injured.(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)Police investigators work at the Tsukui Yamayuri-en, a facility for the disabled where a number of people were killed and dozens injured.(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
Police investigators work at the Tsukui Yamayuri-en, a facility for the disabled where a number of people were killed and dozens injured.(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

“I sincerely pray for peace for the souls of those killed and extend condolences to the bereaved families as well as those wounded.”

He said police and the government would work hard on the investigation “to grasp the whole picture”.