A total of 17 were injured while heading for Halloween celebrations within Tokyo. Witnesses report that the suspect sprayed a transparent liquid on the carriage, then set it on fire.
Video footage showed people running through the carriages, escaping fires, climbing from train windows.
“I thought it was a Halloween stunt,” one witness said to the Yomiuri newspaper about the incident. “Then, I saw a man walking this way, slowly waving a long knife.”
The incident took place at about 8:30 p.m. local hour (11:00 GMT) near Kokuryo station in the city’s western suburbs. Witnesses reported that the suspect donned a purple and green suit. According to media reports, the man was taken into custody by the police right on the spot.
According to news source Kyodo, the man told the police he was a fan of Joker, the character from Batman comics. The Joker is a villainous super-villain in comics and Batman’s arch-enemy. In actuality, the 2019 film that was a considerable success,
Joker featuring Joaquin Phoenix as the lead actor filmed a violent scene in which the Joker attacks a group of passengers on a train after being repeatedly slapped by them. This is a crucial scene that marks the beginning of his transformation into Joker.
Local media reports claim that the suspect told police that he planned to kill people so that he could be punished by death.
AP News reported that the Tokyo Fire Department said three of the injured suffered severe wounds. Local media reported that an older man was unconscious following a stab during the assault.
The video from the scene shows the passengers fleeing from the attackers as they slither through a door that connects carriages and climbs up the train’s windows when it comes to an emergency stop.
Also read about Japan Airlines’ Boeing 777 Makes Emergency Landing After Catching Fire