14 injured in Japan factory stabbing, attacker also sprays unknown liquid

Fourteen people were injured in a stabbing attack in a factory in central Japan

At least 14 people were injured in a stabbing attack at a factory in central Japan on Friday, during which an unidentified liquid was also sprayed, an emergency services official said.

Kyodo News agency and other media said several people were stabbed by a man with a knife at a rubber factory in the city of Mishima, in the Shizuoka prefecture, west of Tokyo.

Kyodo said the attacker was detained at the factory. No other details, including the conditions of the injured, were immediately known.

“Fourteen people are subject to transportation by emergency services,” Tomoharu Sugiyama, a firefighting department official in Mishima city in Japan’s Shizuoka region, told AFP.

According to Sugiyama, authorities received a call around 4.30 pm (0730 GMT) from a nearby rubber factory reporting that “five or six people were stabbed by someone” and that a “spray-like liquid” had also been used during the attack.

The factory in Mishima is run by Yokohama Rubber Co., whose business includes manufacturing tyres for trucks and buses, according to its corporate website.

Violent crime is relatively rare in Japan, which has a low murder rate and some of the world's toughest gun laws.

However, there are occasional stabbing attacks and even shootings, including the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe in 2022.

A Japanese man was sentenced to death in October for a shooting and stabbing rampage that killed four people, including two police officers, in 2023.

A 43-year-old man was also charged with attempted murder in May over a knife attack at Tokyo's Toda-mae metro station.

Japanese media reported that one person has been taken into custody in connection with the incident.