At least five people were killed and 12 injured in Tokyo's Akihabara electronics district on Sunday after a man hit pedestrians with a truck, got out and then began stabbing people, local media reported.
The incident took place on Chuo dori, the main street that cuts through the heart of the world-famous shopping district, at around 12:30pm. On Sundays the road is closed off to traffic to become a pedestrian area and is typically crowded with shoppers and those out the enjoy the area, which has a large number of shops specializing in electronics, computer hardware and software, manga comic books and computer games.
A 25 year-old man from nearby Shizuoka prefecture was arrested at the scene, according to local media reports. The reports said he was carry a survival knife when arrested and had hired the truck and driven to Tokyo. Local TV showed a man said to be the suspect subdued on the ground by local police before being bundled into a police car.
Such public attacks aren't common in Japan, but the attack comes seven years to the day that a man entered an elementary school in Osaka in western Japan and killed eight children with a knife. The attacker, Mamoru Takuma, was executed in 2004 for the crime.
On Sept. 8, 1999, a man killed two shoppers and injured others in a stabbing spree in the Ikebukuro area of Tokyo.
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