Japan tragedy: man attacks train passengers in Tokyo

Firefighters come out of Kokuryo station, on the Keio line in Chofu, western Tokyo, after the attack on a train on Sunday, October 31, 2021. AFP - KAZUHIRO NOGI

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

At least fifteen injured including one serious.

This is the provisional assessment of the attack on a train by a man armed with a knife this Sunday, October 31, 2021, while the polling stations were closing for the legislative elections.

The man was arrested.

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At around 8 p.m., as the

closed and people marched into central Tokyo to celebrate Halloween, a man armed with a knife attacked passengers on a train line west of the capital and set fire by igniting a liquid.

“ 

”explained a passenger.

People started to run in the cars to get away.

The driver then proceeded to an emergency stop in the Kokuryo station, to evacuate his passengers, who can be seen on a video posted on Twitter fleeing through the windows and climbing the anti-suicide barriers of the station to access the platform, while the doors of these barriers like that of the train remained closed.

According to the Kyodo news agency, which quotes police sources, the person responsible for the attack is in his twenties and would not have resisted his arrest.

Assaults are rare in Japan, where gun laws are very strict.

But last August two attacks had already taken place, one with a knife in another suburban train, and another with sulfuric aid in a metro station in the capital.

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• Japan

• Criminality