4 Injured in Knife Attack in Oita Pref.

Saiki, Oita Pref., July 13 (Jiji Press)–Four people were injured and sent to hospital after a knife attack near a Tsutaya rental video store in the city of Saiki in the southwestern Japan prefecture of Oita on Monday morning, investigative sources said. Two unemployed men, aged 63 and 84, suffered serious injuries, including a stab wound to the chest. A female high school student aged 16 and a 61-year-old self-employed man sustained minor injuries. All of them were conscious, according to the sources. At around 9:45 a.m., a witness called police, reporting that someone had been stabbed near the Tsutaya store. Some 15 minutes later, a nearby medical institution reported to police that a man was carrying a knife there. Officers rushed to the scene and arrested Hiroshi Noshita, a 44-year-old physical therapist from Saiki, for alleged violation of the swords and firearms control law. Noshita is suspected of carrying a knife with a blade length of some 18 centimeters at the facility. He admitted the charges, saying, “That is correct,” the sources said. The Oita prefectural police department believes that the man attacked the four. It is investigating the case for possible charges of assault or attempted murder. According to the police and the local fire department, the victims were attacked around the parking lot of the video store, in a residential area some 1.5 kilometers south of Saiki Station of Kyushu Railway Co., or JR Kyushu. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]