SAGAMIHARA, Japan — Japanese police have arrested a man in connection with a deadly stabbing spree at a facility for the disabled, west of Tokyo, according to Japanese state broadcaster NHK.
The report, citing police, said 19 people are confirmed dead and 45 injured in Sagamihara.
Police said they received a call from an employee of the facility reporting the attack about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday (1:30 p.m. ET Monday), according to NHK.
About 30 minutes later, a man believed to be in his 20s turned himself in at the Sagamihara police station, according to the report. He allegedly told police that he was a former employee of the facility.
The incident sent shock waves through Japan, where mass killings are rare. Because gun ownership is highly restricted, mass stabbings tend to be more common, CNN’s Paula Hancocks said.
In June 2001, eight children were killed when a former janitor entered an Ikeda elementary school in Osaka and began stabbing students at random.
In June 2008, a man ran over a group of people with his truck and then stabbed 18, killing seven, in Tokyo’s famous Akihabara gaming district.
The last time Sagamihara, a quiet residential area approximately 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of the Japanese capital, made global headlines was in 2012. That’s when Naoko Kikuchi, a member of the Japanese doomsday cult responsible for the 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway, was arrested there.
