The man told investigators that he “wanted to kill people and was to be given the death penalty” and expected to kill at least two people, according to police.
He was arrested at the scene by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police on suspicion of attempted murder.
According to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, the suspect was arrested after waving a knife and setting fire to a moving train near Kokuryo station in the city of Chfu around 8 p.m. (7 a.m.). The train was bound for Shinjuku Station.
NHK quoted police as saying that the alleged assailant used cigarette lighter fluid, which briefly sparked intense flames and burned some seats.
Police said at least one passenger – a man in his 70s – is in critical condition after being stabbed in the chest.
In August, 10 passengers on a train in Tokyo were stabbed by a man, according to the Tokyo Fire Department. The suspect later turned himself into a convenience store, NHK reported at the time. NHK reported that the Tokyo Metropolitan Police said the man confessed that he wanted to kill “any woman who looked happy,” NHK reported.
And in June 2008, a man in a light truck drove into a crowd in Tokyo’s popular Akihabara district and then jumped out of the vehicle and stabbed pedestrians, killing seven people.
Japan – a country considered one of the safest in the world – strictly controls weapons. According to the US State Department, it is illegal for people to carry a pocket knife, craft knife, hunting knife, or box cutter in public.
CNN’s Yoko Wakatsuki and Mickey Lenden contributed reporting.
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