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Police officers stand guard a facility for the disabled where a number of people were killed and dozens injured in a knife attack. ASSOCIATED PRESS/AP

At least 19 people killed and 20 wounded in attack at centre for disabled people

An ex-employee of the facility is said to be behind the attack.

AT LEAST 19 people were killed and about 20 wounded in a knife attack last night at a facility for the disabled in a city just outside Tokyo in the worst mass killing in generations in Japan.

Police said they responded to a call at about 2.30 am from an employee saying something horrible was happening at the facility in the city of Sagamihara, 50 kilometres west of Tokyo.

A man turned himself in at a police station about two hours later, police in Sagamihara said. He left the knife in his car when he entered the station. He has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and trespassing.

Officials in Kanagawa prefecture, which borders Tokyo, identified the suspect as Satoshi Uematsu, and said he had worked at the facility until February. Japanese media reports said he was 26 years old.

Japan Knife Attack AP AP

He entered the building about 2.10am by breaking a glass window on the first floor of a residential building at the facility, Shinya Sakuma, head of prefectural health and welfare division, said at a news conference.

Kanagawa Governor Yuji Kuroiwa expressed his condolences to the victims.

The Sagamihara City fire department says that 19 people were confirmed dead in the attack. The fire department said doctors at the scene confirmed the deaths.

The death toll could make this the worst mass killing in Japan in the post-World War II era.

Japan Knife Attack Journalists gather in front of the facility. ASSOCIATED PRESS / AP ASSOCIATED PRESS / AP / AP

A woman who lives across from the facility told Japanese broadcaster NHK that she saw police cars enter the facility around 3.30am.

“I was told by a policeman to stay inside my house, as it could be dangerous,” she said.

Then ambulances began arriving, and blood-covered people were taken away.

Japanese broadcaster NTV reported that Uematsu was upset because he had been fired, but that could not be independently confirmed.

map Google Maps Google Maps

The facility, called the Tsukui Yamayuri-en, is home to about 150 adult residents who have mental disabilities, Japan’s Kyodo News service said.

Television footage showed a number of ambulances parked outside, with medical and other rescue workers running in and out.

Japan Knife Attack A police officer stand guard at the gate of the Tsukui Yamayuri-en facility Eugene Hoshiko Eugene Hoshiko

Mass killings are relatively rare in Japan, which has extremely strict gun-control laws. In 2008, seven people were killed by a man who slammed a truck into a crowd of people in central Tokyo’s Akihabara electronics district and then stabbed passers-by.

In 2001, a man killed eight children and injured 13 others in a knife attack at an elementary school in the city of Osaka. The incident shocked Japan and led to increased security at schools.

More recently, 14 were injured in 2010 by an unemployed man who stabbed and beat up passengers on two public buses outside a Japanese train station in Ibaraki Prefecture, about 25 miles (40 kilometres) northeast of Tokyo.

A man who lives near the site of the latest attack said he was shocked such an attack happened in the quiet, semi-rural area near Mount Takao, a mountain popular with hikers.

“I never imagined such a horrible thing happening,” Chikara Inabayashi said.

I was astonished, that’s the only thing I can say.

Read: ‘An idiot with a firearm’: Security guard recalls Florida nightclub shooting

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70 Comments
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    Mute Mick Mccabe
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    Jan 24th 2018, 7:04 PM

    leglaise it tax it and control it and watch the country better it’s self from the extra revenue from it look at the likes of America and put 1 step forward not 10 steps back as normal

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    Mute darren
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    Jan 24th 2018, 7:07 PM

    @Mick Mccabe: “look at the likes of America” with rose tinted glasses?

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    Mute Gillian Scully
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    Jan 24th 2018, 7:12 PM

    @Mick Mccabe: Good idea and use the money to match the plant pots in Grafton Street that are in north Dublin.

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    Mute Honeybadger197
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    Jan 24th 2018, 8:04 PM

    @Mick Mccabe: Amen.

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    Mute GerryCummins
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    Jan 24th 2018, 8:09 PM

    @Mick Mccabe: is that not just for medicinal use in the US?

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    Mute Honeybadger197
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    Jan 24th 2018, 8:18 PM

    @GerryCummins: “The non-medical use of cannabis is legal in 9 states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington) plus the District of Columbia, and decriminalized in another 13 states plus the U.S. Virgin Islands.”

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    Mute Bobby Phelan
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    Jan 24th 2018, 8:20 PM

    @Mick Mccabe: if they legalized big pharma industry would collapse that is what it is all about money..

    21
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    Mute Jonathan Whelan
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    Jan 24th 2018, 7:09 PM

    Ive never seen a stoner attack anything at 3 am other than a burger, yet perfectly legal to down a gut full of vodka n redbull and strut out the club like your connor mcgregor looking for trouble! Some logic

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    Mute GerryCummins
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    Jan 24th 2018, 8:10 PM

    @Jonathan Whelan: seen plenty that couldnt string a sentence together though….you know wharra mean man..yeah man…

    34
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    Mute Jonathan Whelan
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    Jan 24th 2018, 8:30 PM

    @GerryCummins: true enough, but they aint the ones clogging up A&E’s and urinating n vomiting after clubs in a town near you!

    127
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    Mute Todd Hebert
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    Jan 24th 2018, 7:09 PM

    Once again, Gardaí resources being wasted on combatting something that should be legal, regulated, and taxed.

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    Mute Del Haven
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    Jan 25th 2018, 4:29 AM

    @Todd Hebert: also, were it legal these growhouses wouldn’t exist

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    Mute Joseph Caulfield
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    Jan 25th 2018, 3:02 PM

    @Todd Hebert:
    The Gardai did the right thing to shut down this criminal enterprise run id imagine not by cheech and chong but by gangs. It should of course be legalised so Gardai can target heroin and coke dealers but the political will isnt there. The yanks got it made illegal originally and ironically they are now the ones legalising it.

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    Mute Paul Mc Manus
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    Jan 24th 2018, 7:00 PM

    Legalise the stuff for God’s sake.

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    Mute Brendan McLaughlin
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    Jan 24th 2018, 8:03 PM

    Legalise it; refine it, tax it and build hospitals; schools and homes.

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    Mute Jimmy Reinhardt
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    Jan 24th 2018, 7:00 PM

    Junkies? It’s weed for crying out loud, should be legalized…

    142
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    Mute Brian Begley
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    Jan 24th 2018, 7:01 PM

    2.7 million……stop

    61
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    Mute Kate Flaherty
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    Jan 24th 2018, 7:14 PM

    I can smell it from here!, anyone out there with menopausal symptoms I would recommend giving it a go!….

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    Mute Ania_on_coffee
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    Jan 24th 2018, 7:37 PM

    I think cannabis should be legal for many medical conditions. The therapeutic window (dose of a drug between a medical effect and a toxic effect) of cannabis is very narrow, that’s why it is used with caution. Any therapeutic drugs – natural or synthetic need to be used with wisdom, not recreation, because all drugs have side effects.

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    Mute Honeybadger197
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    Jan 24th 2018, 8:06 PM

    @Ania_on_coffee: I take your point, but you must understand cannabis is lovely.

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    Mute Ania_on_coffee
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    Jan 24th 2018, 8:17 PM

    @Honeybadger197: We should legalize it to everyone because it’s lovely? LOL I’m sure it’s probably lovely yes

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    Mute Honeybadger197
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    Jan 24th 2018, 8:22 PM

    @Ania_on_coffee: An occasional bowl is a beautiful thing.

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    Mute Luke
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    Jan 24th 2018, 8:35 PM

    @Honeybadger197:

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    Mute Ania_on_coffee
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    Jan 24th 2018, 10:05 PM

    @Fake Avast: It’s illegal in Ukraine. But some people grow it in the countryside in their backgardens. As for Russia – i don’the know.

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    Mute john doe
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    Jan 25th 2018, 12:08 AM

    @ Ania
    I think you are not correct. The difference between medical and toxic effect in cannabis is very wide.
    Cannabis does not have a toxic effect on the body unless the dose is huge, More than you could physically take!

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    Mute Adam Reid
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    Jan 24th 2018, 7:55 PM

    Excellent news.

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    Mute billy Dorney
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    Jan 24th 2018, 7:50 PM

    Great

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    Mute Niccolo Saccho
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    Jan 24th 2018, 11:53 PM

    Can you imagine if the country was run by stoners?
    Nothing would ever get done.

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    Mute john doe
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    Jan 25th 2018, 12:14 AM

    @nichalo
    Yeah man that richard branson and steve jobs never got anything done right

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    Mute Nollaig Elliot
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    Jan 25th 2018, 12:48 AM

    @Niccolo Saccho:

    I disagree. Although it’s an individual thing I guess. I tend to use pot mostly whilst doing activities. Not driving of course.

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    Mute Termaz Fx
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    Jan 25th 2018, 9:23 AM

    @Niccolo Saccho: totally agree. No rapes, no senseless domestic violence, no pissing puking on the streets.
    What horror it would be to live in a country where no such thing would be done!

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