(Newswire.net — July 26, 2016) — Japan joins the US and EU with reports of mass killings. A knife-wielding man killed 19 people and injured 45, stabbing people at a facility for the disabled in Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture near Tokyo.
The death toll could be greater due to twenty of the injured that are still in critical condition, the national fire department, which also performs medical care, reported.
The police arrested the 26 year-old attacker who simply entered the police station and surrendered to shocked officers confessing to the crime. One witness, a resident at the facility, told the media that the attacker had blond hair and was wearing black clothes.
Authorities are still investigating possible reasons and motives behind one of the deadliest single attacker cases in the city of Sagamihara, outside Tokyo.
National broadcaster NHK released images from the scene showing many ambulances near the Tsukui Yamayuri En (Tsukui Lily Garden) facility, which accommodates people with disabilities.
The attack took place at around 2:30am local time on Tuesday, after a man with a knife entered the facility and started stabbing whoever was near him.
The horror scene lasted for half an hour before the killer turned himself in, saying: “I did it.” The Daily News JP reported that the man was a former employee of the facility.
People expressed sympathies for the victims and their families, condemning the attack.
“Think of the anger that was raging, enabling the wielding of a knife to kill the defenseless. Poor souls,” one tweet reads.
“Can’t be an act of a normal man, can’t be an act of human either. Stabbing 19 disabled people to death means he is threat to mankind,” another posted.
People in disbelief are praying for the victims, raising the question of how the attacker managed to cause so much damage, wielding a knife for half an hour and there was no one to stop him before he turned himself in.
The attack happened only two days after a 21 year-old Syrian refugee killed a pregnant woman and a man with a machete on the street in Germany .
The attacker was stopped by a motorist who ran over him with his car. Media speculate that the motorist is the son of the man who was attacked.
