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JAPAN-CRIME-STABBING LEAD
Two dead, including schoolgirl, after Japan mass stabbing
KAWASAKI, Japan, May 28, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Two people including a
schoolgirl were stabbed to death and more than a dozen injured in Japan on
Tuesday in a rampage that targeted children as they waited for a bus.
The attacker, a man in his 50s who has not yet been identified, crept
silently up behind a group of children at the bus stop and slashed randomly
at them before fatally stabbing himself in the neck.
Police said an 11-year-old schoolgirl named Hanako Kuribayashi and a 39-
year-old parent, identified as government official Satoshi Oyama, died in the
attack, which shocked a country where violent crime is rare.
Seventeen more people, mainly young children, were injured, according to
authorities who had previously given the schoolgirl’s age as 12.
Koji Shimazu of the St. Marianna University School of Medicine, told AFP
that one woman in her 40s and three schoolgirls had to undergo surgery for
knife wounds to the head and neck.
“It is a very harrowing case. I feel strong anger,” Japan’s Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe said in televised remarks.
“I offer my heartfelt condolences to the victims and hope the injured
recover quickly.”
A local man living nearby, who identified himself as Matsumoto, 25, said he
went outside after hearing screams.
“It’s hard to describe what it was like, how it sounded. It wasn’t girls
having fun, it was a sound that was absolutely not normal,” he told AFP.
“I saw a man lying on the street. I also saw a girl hunched over on the
ground. There were also five or six girls, maybe they were the ones who
screamed… There was blood all over them.”
– ‘Prayers and sympathy’ –
The attack occurred during the busy early morning commute as workers headed
to their offices and children to school. Fire department officials said they
received the first emergency calls shortly before 8:00 am (2300 GMT) Monday.
The scene of the attack was still swarming with emergency personnel hours
later, with three police vans parked around the spot to block it from view.
Emergency workers set up an orange medical tent to treat the wounded, and
ambulances and fire engines were parked nearby.
Teiko Naito, principal of the school’s elementary section, said in an
emotional, televised news conference: “A man carrying knives in his both
hands came from a convenience store and slashed children in the queue one-by-
one.”
Assistant principal Satoru Shitori, who was on the scene, said the attacker
crept silently up behind the children before launching his attack.
The director of Caritas Gakuen, Teturo Saito, said 18 of her pupils were
involved.
“The grief is very great. I sincerely pray for those who died and hope the
injured recover quickly… The students now have deep pain in their soul. We
will do our best to offer mental healthcare,” Saito said.
The bloodshed came as Donald Trump wrapped up a state visit to Japan, and
the US president offered his “prayers and sympathy” to the victims as he met
troops outside Tokyo.
Standing aboard a Japanese military ship, he said that “all Americans stand
with the people of Japan and grieve for the victims and for their families”.
– Strict gun control –
A local resident, who declined to give his name, said children attending
the Caritas school lined up for the bus at the site every day. “If you live
in this neighbourhood, everybody knows that these kids are there,” the 66-
year-old told AFP.
“I’ve been in this area for a long time, I cannot believe that somebody
targeted this bus and targeted these small children.”
Violent crime is extremely rare in Japan, and children often travel to and
from schools alone.
The country has famously strict gun control regulations and gun crime is
unusual, but there have been a few high-profile stabbing attacks.
In 2018, a man was arrested in central Japan after stabbing one person to
death and injuring two others aboard a bullet train, an attack that prompted
new security measures on the famed rail service.
And in 2016, a man stabbed 19 people to death at a disability centre south
of Tokyo in what he described as a mission to rid the world of people with
mental illness.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1759 hrs