Man held after several injured in Tokyo Metro knife attack Reports

TOKYO – A man was apprehended in Tokyo after an alleged knife attack on the subway system on May 7 that injured several people, Japanese media reported.

The Tokyo Metro’s Namboku line was suspended after the incident, according to public broadcaster NHK and other local media outlets.

The police were not able to immediately confirm the incident when contacted by AFP.

NHK said several people had been injured, although the severity of their wounds was not immediately clear.

The reports, citing the police, said officers were alerted at around 7pm (6pm in Singapore) that a knife-wielding man had been seen at Todai-mae Station in central Tokyo.

Violent crime is relatively rare in Japan, which has a low murder rate and some of the world’s toughest gun laws.

But there are occasional stabbings and even shootings, including the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe in 2022.

A 24-year-old man allegedly stabbed a passenger and started a fire on a train in Tokyo on Halloween in 2021 while wearing an outfit resembling comic book villain the Joker.

The assailant reportedly said he had used a stabbing attack on a commuter train in Tokyo that same year as a reference. Nine people were wounded, one of them seriously, in that previous attack.

Japan remains shaken by the memory of a major subway attack in 1995 when members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult released sarin gas on trains, killing 14 people. AFP

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