Femicide: 10 female passengers assaulted
A knife-wielding man attacked passengers in a running Odakyu Electric Railway commuter train in Tokyo on Friday evening, injuring 10 people, and was arrested the next day after he fled the scene, police said.
Yusuke Tsushima, 36, was charged with attempted murder for allegedly stabbing a woman in her 20s with a knife. The woman was seriously injured with multiple stab wounds to her back and chest.
Tsushima has admitted to the assault, telling the police, "I have been wanting to kill a happy-looking woman for the past six years. Anyone would have been okay."
The Metropolitan Police Department also quoted him as saying, "I thought I could kill a large number of people as there is no space to flee on a train." At the time of the incident, some 400 passengers were on the train.
The suspect, a resident of Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, had spread cooking oil on the floor of the compartment with an intent to start a fire, but the fire did not break out, investigative sources said.
The police initially said one woman and eight men were hurt in the train attack but later said a total of 10 passengers including four other women and five men on the Shinjuku-bound train were injured.
Earlier Friday, Tsushima was suspected of shoplifting at a grocery store in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward and a staff member at the store had informed police.
Tsushima told the police about his intention of killing the staffer, saying, "I had thought of returning to the store to murder the staffer, but since it was closed I thought of killing people in the train."
The police have confiscated a lighter, a container that is believed to have been used to carry the oil, a 20-centimeter-long chef's knife on the train, and a mobile phone found outside the train.
After the attack, which occurred at around 8:30 p.m. in the 10-carriage train running in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward, Tsushima fled after the driver brought it to a halt after hearing loud voices from the train cars. The suspect was detained by police later that night at a convenience store in neighboring Suginami Ward, according to the investigative sources.
A worker at the convenience store called the police after the man said, "I am the suspect in the incident reported by news media. I am tired of fleeing," the sources said.
After the suspect had left the scene, the train crew guided passengers along the tracks to a nearby station.
"There were a lot of people with blood on their clothes running away in panic," said a 19-year-old university student who witnessed the incident.
The incident prompted Odakyu to temporarily suspend train operations between Shinjuku Station in Tokyo and Mukogaoka-yuen Station in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture.
With the Tokyo Olympics ongoing, the transport ministry has requested all the railway companies to ensure safety by thoroughly checking their surveillance activities with security staff and cameras.
© KYODO
