It Lives!!!!

[Kim]

[Bells]

A man plowed into shoppers with a truck Sunday and then stabbed 17 people within minutes, killing at least seven of them in a grisly attack that shocked a country known for its low crime rate.

The lunchtime violence in the Akihabara district, a popular electronics and video game area, sent thousands of people fleeing.

The assault, which occurred on the seventh anniversary of a mass stabbing at a Japanese elementary school, was the latest in a series of knife attacks that have stoked fears of rising violent crime in Japan.

A 25-year-old man, Tomohiro Kato, was arrested with blood on his face.
"The suspect told police that he came to Akihabara to kill people," said Jiro Akaogi, a spokesman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.

"He said he was tired of life. He said he was sick of everything," Akaogi said.

The violence began when the man crashed a rented, two-ton truck into pedestrians. He then jumped out and began stabbing the people he had knocked down with the truck before turning on horrified onlookers, police said.

Police confirmed seven deaths -- six men and one woman -- but they could not say whether the victims had died of injuries from the truck or were stabbed to death.

Reports said the attacker grunted and roared as he slashed and stabbed at Sunday shoppers crowding a street lined with huge stores packed with the latest in computers, electronics, videos and games.

"He was screaming as he was stabbing people at random," a male witness told national broadcaster NHK.

Another witness told NHK that the suspect dropped his knife after police threatened to shoot him. Amateur video filmed by mobile phone showed policemen overpowering the bespectacled, bloodied suspect.

NHK and Kyodo News reported Kato told police that he had contemplated the act for three days and on Sunday, among several messages posted on the Internet, he allegedly wrote one that said, "It's time."

The attack paralyzed the district known as Electric Town and sent thousands of Sunday shoppers into a panic. Amateur video taken five minutes after the rampage showed shoppers helping victims and a man screaming, "Ambulance, Ambulance!"

At least 17 ambulances rushed to the scene, and rescue workers feverishly tended to victims in the blood-pooled street.

As night fell on Akihabara, several pedestrians stopped by and prayed at the crime scene. A bouquet of flowers, bottles of green tea and incense sticks were placed at the site.

Japan boasts a low crime rate compared to other industrialized nations and Tokyo, with a population of 12.7 million, is considered relatively safe. Guns are tightly restricted and shootings are rare.

But stabbings have become more frequent in recent years.

In March, one person was stabbed to death and at least seven others were hurt by a man who went on a slashing spree with two knives outside a shopping mall in eastern Japan. In January, a 16-year-old boy attacked five people in a shopping area, injuring two of them.

A spate of knife attacks also have occurred in schools, the worst on June 8, 2001, when a man with a history of mental illness burst into elementary school near Osaka killing eight children. He was executed in 2004.

Kyodo News reported that Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said the government will consider strengthening laws on knives like the one used Sunday.

Got say i'm a bit surprised. Really, is like the world get a little crazier everyday... people now, more and more each year, Go out to kill others when life sucks for them.

And now, a Stabbing spree of all things!

[Fifthfiend]

Presented for your approval,

Disney princesses dressed up as slutty Sith Lords.



Because I know what makes you happy.

[PCD]

Finally finally finally finally finally finally finally finally finally finally finally.

[Magus]

I like how their response is to "strengthening laws on knives like the one used Sunday." I'm not sure how that is going to cut down on knife-related crime, although I have no idea what type of knife it was. A pocketknife, maybe? I suppose you could cut down on "hidden weapons" by cracking down on pocketknives, but an attack like this would involve any knife he wants, as he was going on a spree. Outlaw big bowie knives? Your standard kitchen knife is pretty large.

At the end of the day, it's easy to restrict guns, even all guns, but I'd say about impossible to restrict knives. The man apparently has an underlying mental illness of depression--wouldn't it make more sense to promise more funding for programs related to depression and mental illness, to catch people with problems like this before they go on killing sprees?

[Mesden]

From the maker of Earthworm Jim:

Sockbaby Part 1
Sockbaby Part 2
Sockbaby Part 3

This. This is the best thing.

[Mobeus]

Originally Posted by Bellsouth Minion

The lunchtime violence in the Akihabara district, a popular electronics and video game area, sent thousands of people fleeing.


a street lined with huge stores packed with the latest in computers, electronics, videos and games.


The attack paralyzed the district known as Electric Town

I'm sorry, it's a horrible story absolutely, and saddening. But all I could notice reading this is the way they kept bringing up electronics/video games over and over. I mean, i get that it's the scene, but they could've just went with [district name] and left it to the story. It seems like the reporter really went out of his/her way to make sure video games and electronics and such were present in such a grisly story.

Again, it's horrible. And saddening. And happens tons over here but still doesn't make it any better anywhere, and it's more than a little sick. I'm all 100% with that.

But I have to wonder...

[Nikose Tyris]

http://www.nuklearforums.com/showthread.php?t=29048

I hate to be a downer but I think we're supposed to put these stories in here.

This was in our local papers too- not frontpage but still had a whole page and a half dedicated to it, and there wasn't a lot of information TO use. It was just a lot of repeated information in the article, stretched.

is this all we show for news anymore? :S

[Melfice]

Originally Posted by Regulus Tera

I was gonna say "AMERICA! FUCK YEAH!" but then I read the story and it became totally probable.

Phoenix finds ice on mars? [with pic!]

... great, so as soon as wel colonize Mars, your grand-grand-grandchildren might be living near the Holy Cow ice lake.

[Toastburner B]