According to authorities, a man on a murder mission drove a rented, two-ton truck into pedestrians in a crowded Tokyo neighborhood Sunday. He then stabbed 17 people in three minutes, killing at least seven.
The lunchtime assault, which coicidentally fell on the seventh anniversary of a mass stabbing in Japan in 2001, sent thousands of pedestrians into a panic in Tokyo’s crowded Akihabara district, where most go for electronics and video games and is wildly popular among the country’s youth.
Tomohiro Kato, 25, was arrested with blood on his face, only suggesting a desire to murder stranger as his sole motive. He later added that he waas tired of life and sick of everything.
Police confirmed seven deaths — six men and one woman — but they could not say whether the victims had died of injuries from the truck or were stabbed to death.
Reports said the attacker grunted and roared as he slashed and stabbed at Sunday shoppers crowding a street lined with huge stores packed with computers and other advanced electronics, and the latest in video and computer games.
Onlloking witnesses said he waas screaming the entire time as he stabbed people. There is a video that was captured by cell phone as he was arrested.
At least 17 ambulances rushed to the scene, and rescue workers tended to victims in the street.
