Two killed, many injured as Japanese man stabs schoolgirls outside Tokyo
Kawasaki, Japan May 28 2019 — A man carrying a knife in each hand and screaming “I will kill you” attacked schoolgirls waiting at a bus stop just outside Tokyo on Tuesday, killing two people and wounding more than a dozen. The suspect was found at the scene with apparent self-inflicted stab wounds and died later at a hospital, according to Japanese media.
Most of the victims were schoolgirls between six- and-12-years-old who were lined up at a bus stop near Noborito Park in the city of Kawasaki when the man, apparently in his 50s, began slashing them with knives.
Police said three people, including the attacker, were killed including an 11-year-old girl and a 39-year-old man, reportedly the slain girl’s father. At least 17 others, most of them schoolgirls, were wounded.
Japan’s national broadcaster NHK quoted police as saying the suspect died after stabbing himself in the neck at the scene and being found unconscious. Police did not immediately confirm those details.
President Trump offered his sympathy for the victims of the attack as he toured Japan’s largest warship, the Kaga, on the last day of his 4-day state visit to Japan.
“On behalf of the First Lady and myself, I want to take a moment to send our prayers and sympathy to the victims of the stabbing attack this morning in Tokyo,” Mr. Trump said. “All Americans stand with the people of Japan and grieve the victims and for their families.”
Most of the victims attended a nearby school founded by Soeurs de la Charite de Quebec, an organization of Catholic nuns in Quebec City in Canada.
A witness told the Mainichi newspaper that he heard children shrieking after walking past a bus, and when he turned around, he saw a man wielding a knife in each hand, screaming “I will kill you” and several children were on the ground.
NHK, citing police, said a bus driver told officials that a man holding a knife in each hand walked toward the bus and started slashing children. NHK also interviewed a witness who said he saw the suspect trying to force his way onto a bus.
The attacker’s identity and motives weren’t immediately known.
Television footage showed emergency workers giving first aid to people inside an orange tent set up on the street, and police and other officials carrying the injured to ambulances.
Although Japan has one of the lowest crime rates in the world, it has had a series of high-profile killings, including in 2016 when a former employee at a home for the disabled allegedly killed 19 and injured more than 20 others.
In July last year, a knife-wielding man slashed and killed a police officer in a local police station in northern Japan’s Toyama prefecture, then took the officer’s gun and fatally shot a security guard outside a nearby elementary school. The male suspect was shot by a second policeman and captured after the attack, but no motive was reported.
