Three injured in knife attack in Japan train station, suspect arrested

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
23 Jul 2023 13:00

The victims are a train conductor in his 20s and two male passengers in their 20s and 70s who were transferred to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Rinku-town Station in Izumisano, Osaka prefecture, Japan on March 17, 2007.

Police in Japan confirm that three people were injured in a knife attack on a train at Rinku Town station in the Osaka region on Sunday, and the suspect has allegedly been arrested.

The victims were a train conductor in his 20s and two male passengers in their 20s and 70s. They were transferred to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries, according to Tetsuya Sakagami from a fire department to AFP.

Local police told AFP that the 37-year-old male suspect was carrying three knives upon his arrest, was detained for attempted murder, and has already confessed to committing the crime. However, the motive is still under investigation.

Although Japan has a low murder rate and some of the world's strictest gun laws, occasional stabbings and shootings do occur, with the most famous including the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe last year.

Abe died on July 8 after being shot while giving a speech in Nara, according to Japanese media. He was unconscious and bleeding from the chest when he was admitted to the hospital.

The suspect in the attack on Abe, who was giving a speech in front of Yamato Saidaiji Station two days ahead of the Japanese Upper House elections when he was shot at 11h30 am, was apprehended on the spot.

In May this year, a woman and two male police officers were killed in a shooting and stabbing attack at a farm in central Japan.

Back in 2021, a 24-year-old man allegedly lit a fire and stabbed a passenger on a train in Tokyo during Halloween in an outfit of the comic book villain the Joker. The verdict in his case is due to come out on July 31.