A man was arrested after being restrained by passengers following a knife attack at a Tokyo subway station that left two people injured during the evening rush hour on May 7.
The incident occurred around 7 p.m. on the platform of Todaimae Station on the Tokyo Metro Namboku Line in the capital’s Bunkyo Ward.
A 20-year-old university student suffered a head wound after being slashed and was taken to a hospital, police said.
The suspect, Yoshitaka Toda, 43, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of attempted murder.
Toda is accused of attacking the victim, who was boarding the train, with what appeared to be a kitchen knife. He allegedly slashed the victim once from behind and a couple more times while chasing him into the train.
Investigators believe the two men did not know each other.
After the attack, the suspect was quickly subdued by passengers, including an off-duty police officer.
During the struggle, a passenger in his 30s sustained a minor injury to his finger.
The suspect, whose address and occupation are unknown, has remained silent during police questioning.
Witnesses described a horrific scene unfolding during the evening commute home.
One male passenger became concerned when the train lingered unusually long at the station and an alarm bell rang. Stepping off to investigate, he spotted bloodstains near the platform stairway and saw a man being treated for an injury near his ear.
A university student on her way home got off the train as other passengers rushed to evacuate. She heard another passenger report seeing a man with a knife and saw the suspect being wrestled to the floor of the train.
“I’m shocked to see something like this on my usual commute,” she said.
(This article was compiled from reports by Suzuka Tominaga, Shomei Nagatsuma, Tomonori Asada, Hiromichi Fujita and Yu Iwasa.)
AloJapan.com