Two people killed in Japan knife attack

A man wielding a knife killed at least two people and injured 16 others on Tuesday when he attacked a group of schoolgirls close to a bus stop in a city near Tokyo, officials said. Japanese media reported the suspect, who was in his 50s, shouted “I will kill you” as he slashed his victims. He stabbed himself to death after the attack and was pronounced dead at a hospital. Most of the victims were students from a nearby Catholic elementary school who were waiting at a bus stop in the city of Kawasaki. Police identified the casualties as 11-year-old Hanako Kuribayashi from Caritas Gakuen school and Satoshi Oyama, a 39-year-old foreign ministry employee who was taking his child to the bus stop.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe condemned the attack and promised increased measures to protect schoolchildren. “It was an extremely harrowing incident in which many small children were the victims, and I am outraged,” he said.