Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
A man wearing a fictional figure costume Joker from the Batman movie stab dozens of passengers on the train line Tokyo, Japan, on Sunday (31/10).
Japanese police said at least 17 people were injured in the incident. The perpetrator, said the police, was arrested immediately at the scene.
In addition to stabbing the train passengers, a number of eyewitnesses saw the 24-year-old man dousing a number of corners of the train and starting a fire.
The stabbing took place on the Keio express train line to Shinjuku, one of the world’s busiest train stations, at around 8 p.m. local time.
As a result of the incident, partial train services on the Keiko line were suspended.
A video posted to Twitter showed people running from the train carriages and soon the fire started.
Quoted Reuters, another video shows passengers rushing out of train windows and onto the platform where the train makes an emergency stop.
“I thought it was a Halloween stunt,” an eyewitness told the Yomiuri newspaper.
“Then I saw a man walking this way, slowly swinging a long knife with blood.”
Another video shows a bespectacled man wearing a purple suit and a bright green shirt, as worn by the Joker, sitting in an empty train smoking a cigarette.
The man looked calm smoking a cigarette while crossing his legs.
Another footage shows the man surrounded by police after his arrest.
Local media later reported that the suspect confessed to “wanting to kill people”.
With this claim, the suspect could be sentenced to death.
Criminal crimes are rare in Japan. However, in recent months, violent incidents have occurred in Japan, especially at Tokyo commuter stations.
Japan also has strict gun laws, but sometimes some violent crimes involve other weapons such as knives and acid.
In August, nine people were injured after being stabbed by an unidentified man on a Tokyo commuter train. The suspect finally surrendered after fleeing the scene.
In a separate incident in the same month, two people suffered burns in an acid attack at a Tokyo subway station.
In 2019, a man killed two people including a schoolgirl and injured a dozen people in an attack targeting children while they were waiting for a bus.
In 2018, a man was arrested in central Japan after stabbing one person to death and wounding two others on a bullet train.
(rds)
– .
