Kawasaki attacker cuts 19 people in less than 20 seconds

May 29, 2019

Kawasaki, Kanagawa Pref., May 29 (Jiji Press)--The 51-year-old attacker in Tuesday's stabbing rampage near Tokyo slashed 19 people one after another in just 10 and a few seconds, police sources said Wednesday.

In the incident in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, the attacker, Ryuichi Iwasaki, cut and stabbed the upper part of the body, such as the neck, chest and back, of the 19 victims, including 17 schoolchildren. Of those attacked, two died, including an 11-year-old elementary school sixth-grader.

The prefectural police searched his home in Kawasaki, suspecting that the man had planned the assault with a strong murderous intent, the sources said.

The police will try to identify his motives by analyzing confiscated materials.

The home of Iwasaki, whose occupation is unknown, is about 4 kilometers west of the rampage site. The police will also investigate how the suspect reached the site near a train station.

Around 7:40 a.m. Tuesday (10:40 p.m. Monday GMT), Iwasaki, holding knives with a blade of some 30 centimeters in his hands, approached Caritas Elementary School pupils waiting for a school bus.

He stabbed the father of one of the children before attacking other pupils and a woman in her 40s.

Hanako Kuribayashi, the sixth-grader at the school, and Satoshi Oyama, a 39-year-old Foreign Ministry official, died, while two other girls and the woman were seriously injured.

By analyzing security camera images and other information, the police have found that it took him 10 and a few seconds to stab Oyama, attack others and cut himself in the neck and fall in response to a bus driver's reproach, the sources said. Iwasaki was later confirmed dead.

The knives used in the assault were found in nearby shrubbery. Two other knives wrapped in a shirt were inside his backpack left on the premises of a convenience store near the crime scene. Jiji Press