Global Courant
TOKYO – Three people were injured in a knife attack on a train in western Japan on Sunday. Police said they had arrested a man who allegedly committed the stabbings.
The victims — a train conductor in his 20s and two male passengers in their 20s and 70s — were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Tetsuya Sakagami of a nearby fire department told AFP.
The 37-year-old male suspect was armed with three knives when he was arrested at Rinku Town station in the Osaka region, local police told AFP.
He was arrested for attempted murder and has already admitted carrying out the attack on Sunday morning, police said, adding they were still investigating the motive.
Violent crime is rare in Japan, which has a low murder rate and some of the world’s strictest gun laws.
But there are occasional stabbings and even shootings, including the 2022 assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
In 2021, a 24-year-old man allegedly stabbed a passenger on Halloween and set fire to a train in Tokyo while wearing an outfit resembling the comic book villain, the Joker.
A verdict in that case will be handed down on July 31. AFP
