17 Hit or Stabbed, 5 Confirmed Dead in Tokyo's Akihabara (Update 4)
posted on 2008-06-08 02:10 EDT
25-year-old male suspect arrested in otaku shopping district
At least 16 people were injured, and two have been confirmed as dead, after a truck collided with pedestrians and the truck's driver allegedly stabbed people at Tokyo's Akihabara otaku shopping district on Sunday afternoon. A man reportedly struck five to six individuals with a truck at an intersection near the main Japan Railways station at around 12:35 p.m. The man allegedly proceeded to leave the vehicle and stab people on the street. Later that afternoon, the police arrested a 25-year-old male named Tomohiro Katō on suspicion of attempted murder by "stabbing one person after another with a knife." Kato was born in Aomori Prefecture in northern Japan, but lives in Shizuoka Prefecture's Susono City in central Japan.
16 people were taken to hospitals, and two people — a 19-year-old male and a 74-year-old male — have reportedly died. Three more were in cardiac arrest.
Source: Sankei Shimbun, Nikkei via Patrick Macias
Update: Details about the suspect and the victims added.
Update 2: FNN has added video coverage. Sunday is usually the busiest day for pedestrian shoppers in Akihabara, as it is the day that the most people have a day off school or work in Japan.
Update 3: Sankei Shimbun now reports that a third person, a 47-year-old male, has died. A 17th person, a police officer, was also injured. The truck was a two-ton rental vehicle. According to eyewitnesses, the truck entered the intersection in a zigzag manner and passed the vehicles that had stopped at a red light to strike pedestrians on the crosswalk.
Update 4: Nikkei is reporting that five people have died. Of the injured, 14 were male, and 3 were female. The incident occurred at the intersection of Chūō and Kanda Myōjin Streets, two of the main throughways of the area.
