“I thought it was a Halloween stunt,” said one commuter about a vicious, costumed, knife-wielding rampage on a commuter train in Tokyo. The assailant, dressed up as The Joker, stabbed passengers, sprayed them with hydrochloric acid, and set the train on fire. And after everyone had fled, he sat down on a bench seat in the train and calmly smoked a cigarette.
Below are an excerpt from the story and a news report with some of the video of fleeing passengers, via the New York Post. Below that, the Joker smoking.
The unidentified attacker brandished a knife and began slashing passengers aboard the crowded Keio train near the Kokuryo station while wearing the Batman villain’s costume, NHK News said in a report.
“I thought it was a Halloween stunt,” one witness told reporters. “Then I saw a man walking this way, slowly waving a long knife.”
He said the knife was covered in blood.
Passengers scrambled to escape, some climbing through train windows and others fleeing to other cars, as smoke began to fill the train after the suspect poured a flammable liquid and set it on fire, the outlet said.
🚨 | NEW: The alleged attacker in Japan, in a “Joker” costume. Sitting and casually smoking after stabbing and spraying hydrochloric acid on passengers on a train in Tokyo, and then setting everything on fire
— News For All (@NewsForAllUK) October 31, 2021
That is nuts.
The New York Post adds: “Police arrested the costumed man, but not before he wounded 17 commuters — at least one now in critical condition.”
“Authorities did not reveal a motive for the attack, but local outlets reported that the attacker ‘wanted to kill people so he could be sentenced to death,” they report.