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By Associated Press and Reuters
TOKYO — A man wielding a knife attacked commuters at a bus stop just outside Tokyo during Tuesday morning’s rush hour, killing as many as three people and wounding at least 19, including 13 children, Japanese authorities and media said.
NHK national television, citing officials, said that a man with a knife attacked people lined up at the bus stop in Kawasaki City. The report, quoting police, said the wounded were rushed to nearby hospitals, but one child and two adults were thought to have died.
An official with the Kawasaki fire department said one person was thought to be killed. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media.
NHK said the attacker was captured, and two knives were found at the spot. He was said to be badly hurt after stabbing himself in the shoulder.
No other details, including the man’s identity and motives, were immediately known.
Violent crime is rare in Japan but there have periodically been high-profile incidents that have shocked the nation.
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.