6 dead in Tokyo stabbing spreeTOKYO - A Japanese man went on a midday stabbing rampage in Tokyo's premier electronics and video game district Sunday, killing six people, wounding 12 and paralyzing thousands of shoppers with fear.
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The deadly lunchtime assault in Akihabara district occurred after the attacker drove a rented 2-ton truck into a crowd of pedestrians, running over three people, public broadcaster NHK quoted an unidentified witness as saying.
"The suspect told police that he came to Akihabara to kill people," said Jiro Akaogi, a spokesman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. "He said he was tired of life. He said he was sick of everything."
Police said they arrested Tomohiro Kato, 25, at the scene.
Local news reports initially said the man was a self-proclaimed gangster, but NHK later said the suspect was not a gang member.
Reports said the attacker grunted and roared as he slashed and stabbed at his victims on a street crowded with Sunday shoppers.
"He was screaming as he was stabbing people at random," another unidentified witness told NHK.
The six dead included five males and one female, Akaogi said.
Toshiyuki Miyake, a spokesman for the Tokyo Fire Department, said earlier that five victims had gone into cardiac arrest.
At least 17 ambulances rushed to the scene, with TV footage showing rescue workers tending to victims in the street.
Akihabara district, known as Electric Town, is wildly popular with Japan's cyber-wise youth.
Once rare, stabbing attacks have become more frequent in Japan in recent years as violent crime has increased. In one of the worst attacks, a man with a history of mental illness burst into an elementary school in Japan in 2001 and killed eight children. The killer was executed in 2004.
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