National Incident with knives causes commotion on Tokyo Yamanote line train
TOKYO – An emergency call was made Sunday by a staff member at JR Shinjuku Station, a major train terminal in Japan, reporting that a man was “brandishing a knife” inside a train on Tokyo’s busy Yamanote loop line, police said.
Two men, who were apparently injured in the commotion, were transported to the hospital, the Tokyo Fire Department said, with the police questioning a man in his 50s, believed to be of foreign nationality, to gather more details about the situation.
The man was seated with two knives of around 25 to 27 centimeters, wrapped in what appeared to be cloth, with part of the blades visible. The self-proclaimed chef said he had brought the two knives from his workplace to take them home, the police said.
No eyewitnesses saw a knife being swung.
According to East Japan Railway Co, operator of the Yamanote Line, the emergency alarm inside the train was pressed shortly before 4 p.m. and operations of the Yamanote, Chuo and Sobu local lines were temporarily suspended, affecting about 14,000 passengers.
© KYODO