Japan: a man dressed as the Joker stabs passengers in the Tokyo subway
Sylvie Claire / November 3, 2021
A 24-year-old man dressed as the famous Joker from Batman attacked passengers on a train in Tokyo, Japan. The first report said that 17 people were injured.
Bloody Halloween in Tokyo. A 24-year-old man dressed as the Joker from Batman, attacked passengers with a knife on a Tokyo train line Sunday night. The attack occurred on the Keio express line to Shinjuku, the world's busiest train station, at about 8 p.m., Japanese media said. In surveillance videos shown on television, passengers can be seen fleeing through the train's windows. At least seventeen people were injured, including a victim in his sixties, hospitalized in critical condition after stabbing. The individual is also said to have spilled an unidentified liquid on the train, which caused a small explosion followed by a quickly controlled fire in a seat of the train.
The suspect did not resist when arrested. In a scene captured shortly after the attack, the man is seen quietly smoking a cigarette as if nothing had happened, with the knife in his right hand. At first I thought it was a Halloween-related event. But I fled when a man armed with a long knife entered, a passenger who escaped unharmed told AFP.
The assailant committed his acts without showing any emotion, just mechanically, said a passenger, adding: I think it scared everyone. Immediately after the attack, dozens of firefighters and police officers went to the scene.
The attack came as polls were closing in the country, which was holding parliamentary elections on Sunday, and also in the middle of the Halloween holiday, which is very popular in the Japanese archipelago.