By Yuichi Yamazaki, AFP<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nYokohama Rubber Company Mishima Plant.
\nPhoto: RYO AOKI \/ AFP\n<\/p>\n
Fifteen people were injured in a stabbing attack in a rubber factory in central Japan on Friday during which an unspecified liquid was also sprayed, emergency officials said.<\/p>\n
“All 15 people were sent to hospital,” a firefighting department official in the city of Mishima, southwest of Tokyo, told AFP.<\/p>\n
The official, declining to be named, said that of the 15 injuries, eight were the result of stabbing and seven due to the liquid.<\/p>\n
Some local media outlets, quoting unnamed sources, said the liquid appeared to be bleach.<\/p>\n
Five of the victims were classified as “requiring emergency care” by emergency workers at the scene, but all have remained conscious, the official said.<\/p>\n
Tomoharu Sugiyama, another official from the firefighting department, told AFP a call was initially received at about 4,30pm from a rubber factory saying “people were stabbed by someone” and that a “spray-like liquid” had been used.<\/p>\n
Japanese media, including public broadcaster NHK, reported that police had arrested a man on suspicion of attempted murder.<\/p>\n
The Asahi Shimbun daily quoted investigative sources as saying that the man in his 30s was connected to the factory.<\/p>\n
He was wearing what appeared to be a gas mask, the newspaper and other media said.<\/p>\n
Asahi Shimbun also said that he was apparently armed with what it described as a survival knife.<\/p>\n
NHK said the man told police that he was 38 years old.<\/p>\n
A fleet of ambulances were dispatched to the Yokohama Rubber Co. factory, which according to its website makes tyres for trucks and buses.<\/p>\n
NHK aerial footage showed emergency workers and vehicles including fire trucks parked outside the factory.<\/p>\n
Violent crime is relatively rare in Japan, which has a low murder rate and some of the world’s toughest gun laws.<\/p>\n
However, there are occasional stabbing attacks and even shootings, including the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe in 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n