Fourteen people were injured in a stabbing attack in a factory, during which an unspecified liquid was also sprayed, an emergency services official said.
“Fourteen people are subject to transportation by emergency services,” Tomoharu Sugiyama, a firefighting department official in the city of Mishima, in Shizuoka region, said yesterday.
He said a call was received at about 4.30pm from a nearby rubber factory saying “five or six people were stabbed by someone” and that a “spray-like liquid” had also been used.
Japanese media, including public broadcaster NHK, reported that police had arrested a man on suspicion of attempted murder.
The Asahi Shimbun daily quoted investigative sources as saying that the man in his 30s was someone connected to the factory.
He was wearing what appeared to be a gas mask, the newspaper and other media said.
Asahi also said he was apparently armed with what it described as a survival knife.
NHK said the man told police that he was 38 years old.
The seriousness of the injuries was unknown, although NHK said all victims were conscious.
Sugiyama said at least six of the 14 victims had been sent to hospital in a fleet of ambulances.
The exact nature of the injuries was also unclear.
Violent crime is relatively rare in Japan, which has a low murder rate and some of the world’s toughest gun laws.
However, there are occasional stabbing attacks and even shootings, including the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe in 2022. — AFP
