Asia-Pacific

Assailant dressed as Joker injures 17 on Tokyo train

‘I saw a man walking this way, slowly waving a long knife ... there was blood on the knife’

Firefighters gather outside Kokuryo Station on the Keio Line in the city of Chofu in western Tokyo after a man attacked multiple people in a knife and fire attack on a train. Photograph: Getty

Sun Oct 31 2021 - 21:23

A 24-year-old man dressed in Batman’s Joker costume attacked passengers on a Tokyo train line on Sunday evening, injuring 17 people as many party-goers headed into the city centre for Halloween gatherings.

Police arrested the suspected attacker on the spot. A man believed to be in his 60s was unconscious and in critical condition after being stabbed, while witnesses also said the attacker had spread fluid around the train and started a fire.

One video uploaded on social media showed a steady stream of people running away from a train car where, seconds later, a blaze erupted. Another video showed passengers rushing to squeeze out of the train’s windows and on to the platform where the train had made an emergency stop.

“I thought it was a Halloween stunt,” one witness told the Yomiuri newspaper, recalling the moment he saw other passengers running in a panic towards his train car. “Then, I saw a man walking this way, slowly waving a long knife.” There was blood on the knife, he said.

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Another video showed a bespectacled man dressed in a purple suit and bright green shirt, as worn by the Joker, seated in an empty train puffing on a cigarette, his legs crossed and looking calm. He can be seen through the window being surrounded by law enforcement in a subsequent clip.

Local media reported later that the suspect told authorities he “wanted to kill people so he could be sentenced to death”.

The attack occurred on the Keio express line bound for Shinjuku, the world’s busiest rail station.

Partial service on the Keio line remained suspended late on Sunday. – Reuters

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