Japan stabbing: Three people killed after knife attack during rush hour in Kawasaki

Eleven-year-old child and 39-year-old government worker dead, and at least 17 others injured

Three people have died, including a child, after commuters were stabbed during an attack in Japan.

Authorities said at least 17 people, including eight elementary school children, were wounded by a suspect wielding a knife at a bus stop in Kawasaki, near Tokyo, on Tuesday.

Police also confirmed 11-year-old Hanako Kuribayashi and Satoshi Oyama, a 39-year-old government employee who was taking his child to the bus stop, were killed.

Hospital officials said both had been slashed in the neck and the head.

According to reports, the attacker approached a group of children at the bus stop near Noborito Park with a knife in each hand screaming: “I will kill you!”

Police identified the attacker as 51-year-old Ryuichi Iwasaki from Kawasaki who reportedly lived with his elderly aunt and uncle.

He was captured but slashed his own neck and died, police said.

Officers are still looking into his occupation and his motive was not immediately known.

Most of the victims were said to have attended a school founded by Soeurs de la Charite de Quebec, an organisation of Catholic nuns in Quebec City in Canada.

A witness told The Mainichi newspaper that he heard children shrieking after walking past a bus and turned around to see a man wielding a knife in each hand, screaming “I will kill you”.

CARITAS Elementary School students leave their school with parents following an stabbing at a bus stop in Kawasaki, near Tokyo, Japan, 28 May 2019. (AP/Shinji Kita)

An official at Kawasaki city office said three of the injuries were serious and 13 others were not life-threatening.

NHK national television, quoting police, said the suspect took his own life after the rampage – although police would not immediately confirm the report.

The broadcaster also interviewed a witness who said he saw the suspect trying to force his way onto a bus.

The man, thought to be in his 40s or 50s, reportedly began slashing at people waiting at a bus stop. Two knives, along with some victims, were found in a nearby park, it is said.

The attack took place as Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe hosted US president Donald Trump.

Mr Abe said he was outraged by the stabbings and vowed to take “all possible measures to protect the safety of children”.

He added: “It was an extremely harrowing incident in which many small children were victimised, and I feel strong resentment.”

Mr Trump offered his sympathy to the victims, saying: “I want to take a moment to send our prayers and sympathy to the victims of the stabbing attack this morning in Tokyo.

“All Americans stand with the people of Japan and grieves for the victims and their families.”

Violent crime is rare in Japan, although the east Asian nation has on occasion experienced high-profile knife attacks.

A stabbing spree on a school bus and a commuter bus in a Tokyo suburb in 2010 injured more than a dozen people.

Two years earlier, a 28-year-old man drove a truck into a crowded pedestrian crossing in Tokyo, killing three people, and then fatally stabbed four more.

Additional reporting by agencies