Akihabara assault

News is just coming out about some sort of assault by a man in Akihabara. At least 14 people are injured. It happened about an hour ago, just after 1pm and TV stations are now broadcasting live coverage. Reportedly, it was a guy 25 or older who came by truck and attacked people with a survival knife.

6:06PM. Six people are reported to have been with 12 more injured. The thing that killed and injured them came from Shizuoka with the express purpose of killing a number of people. The government and media reaction will be interesting as this kind of thing seems to be becoming more and more frequent, with the emphasis on "seems to be." Could one defend him/herself? Not likely. Fighting a nut with a knife with one's bare hands is usually a losing scenario except in the movies.

7:20PM. Seven have now died. One of those stabbed was a police officer. The "man" who did this had driven a truck at high speed through the street near Akihabara JR station which is closed to traffic on Sundays and ran down a number of people. It then got out of the truck and began stabbing people. After stabbing a number, the thing then fled down an ally where after stabbing 2-3 more, a police officer confronted him. Apparently, the police officer initially used his nightstick to defend himself before pulling his revolver and informing the thing that he would shoot it if it did not cease. The creature, who later told police that he was out to kill anyone because he was tired of living and wanted to die, suddenly decided that his own death did not seem so attractive after all and meekly surrendered.

According to NHK, this was the worst of 67 indiscriminate killing incidents over the last ten years.