A crazed Tokyo man has killed seven people in a stabbing spree.
A man who police said “was tired of life” drove into a crowd of pedestrians Sunday and then went on a stabbing rampage in Tokyo’s premier electronics and video game district, killing seven people and wounding 10, authorities said.
The deadly lunchtime assault happened in Akihabara district after the attacker drove a rented two-ton truck into a crowd, running over three people, public broadcaster NHK quoted an unidentified witness as saying.
News reports said the man jumped out of the truck and began stabbing the people he’d knocked down, then turned on horrified onlookers. The attacker grunted and roared as he slashed and stabbed at his victims on a street crowded with Sunday shoppers, reports said.
“He was screaming as he was stabbing people at random,” another unidentified witness told NHK.
This tragedy could have been prevented. There’s simply no reason for assault knives to be in the hands of ordinary citizens.
UPDATE: Reductio creep has already set in, apparently: England is considering a ban on knives.
Knife crime among young people has sparked a widespread debate in recent weeks in Britain, where police say they have seen “a worrying trend” toward more severe knife attacks involving younger attackers and victims.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Thursday announced a crackdown on teenagers carrying knives, saying that those as young as 16 will be prosecuted for knife possession on the first offense. Previously, anyone younger than 18 generally received only a warning.
“Young people need to understand that carrying knives doesn’t protect you, it does the opposite — it increases the danger for all of us, destroys young lives and ruins families,” Brown said after meeting with top police and government officials at his 10 Downing Street office. “Recent tragic events have reminded us of that.”
In a country where almost all guns are illegal, police say knives are the most popular weapons carried by youths in major cities from London to Glasgow. A police stop-and-search campaign in London last month found that about 5 percent of the 4,200 youths randomly checked were carrying knives.
It’s getting mighty hard to do satire these days.
