Man held after two injured in Tokyo Metro knife attack: Reports
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The Tokyo Metro’s Namboku line was suspended after the incident.
PHOTO: THE JAPAN NEWS/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
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TOKYO – A man was apprehended in Tokyo after an alleged knife attack on the subway system on May 7 that injured two men, Japanese media reported.
The Tokyo Metro’s Namboku line was suspended after the incident, according to public broadcaster NHK and other local media outlets.
The reports, citing the police, said officers were alerted at around 7pm (6pm in Singapore) that a knife-wielding man had been seen at Todai-mae Station in central Tokyo.
The Yomiuri Shimbun reported that the two victims are in their 20s, and were attacked inside a train car by a man wielding a knife.
One of the victims sustained a head injury after being stabbed, while the other hurt his fingers while trying to restrain the suspect, Kyodo News reported.
The suspect, 43, was apprehended by passengers and arrested by the police on suspicion of attempted murder, according to the reports.
Violent crime is relatively rare in Japan, which has a low murder rate and some of the world’s toughest gun laws.
But there are occasional stabbings and even shootings, including the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe in 2022.
A 24-year-old man allegedly stabbed a passenger and started a fire on a train
The assailant reportedly said he had used a stabbing attack on a commuter train in Tokyo that same year as a reference. Nine people were wounded, one of them seriously, in that previous attack.
Japan remains shaken by the memory of a major subway attack in 1995 when members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult released sarin gas on trains, killing 14 people. AFP
