This is madness!

This reminds me of Grand Theft Auto style pedestrian killing. I hope this isn't really caused by the latest installment's influence. Poor souls.

17 Hit or Stabbed, 7 Confirmed Dead in Tokyo's Akihabara (Update 7)
posted on 2008-06-08 02:10 EDT
25-year-old male suspect arrested in otaku shopping district

At least 16 people were injured, and two have been confirmed as dead, after a truck collided with pedestrians and the truck's driver allegedly stabbed people at Tokyo's Akihabara otaku shopping district on Sunday afternoon. A man reportedly struck five to six individuals with a truck at an intersection near the main Japan Railways station at around 12:35 p.m. The man allegedly proceeded to leave the vehicle and stab people on the street. Later that afternoon, the police arrested a 25-year-old male named Tomohiro Katō on suspicion of attempted murder by "stabbing one person after another with a knife." Kato was born in Aomori Prefecture in northern Japan, but lives in Shizuoka Prefecture's Susono City in central Japan.

16 people were taken to hospitals, and two people — a 19-year-old male and a 74-year-old male — have reportedly died. Three more were in cardiac arrest.

Source: Sankei Shimbun, Nikkei via Patrick Macias

Update: Details about the suspect and the victims added.

Update 2: FNN has added video coverage. Sunday is usually the busiest day for pedestrian shoppers in Akihabara, as it is the day that the most people have a day off school or work in Japan.

Update 3: Sankei Shimbun now reports that a third person, a 47-year-old male, has died. A 17th person, a police officer, was also injured. The truck was a two-ton rental vehicle. According to eyewitnesses, the truck entered the intersection in a zigzag manner and passed the vehicles that had stopped at a red light to strike pedestrians on the crosswalk.

Update 4: Nikkei is reporting that five people have died. Of the injured, 14 were male, and 3 were female. The incident occurred at the intersection of Chūō and Kanda Myōjin Streets, two of the main throughways of the area.

Update 5: NHK News reports that a 21-year-old woman is the sixth person confirmed as having died in the incident. Sankei Shimbun lists the other victims as a 19-year-old male named Kazunori Fujino, a 74-year-old male named Katsuhiko Nakamura, a 47-year-old male, a 29-year-old male, and a 20-year-old male. Sankei Shimbun also displayed a reader-submitted photograph of the suspect being arrested.

Update 6: Nikkei reports that a seventh person, 33-year-old Mitsuru Matsui, has died.

Update 7: 47 News lists the dead:

* Katsuhiko Nakamura (male, 74 years old)
* Kazunori Fujino (male, 19)
* Kasuhiro Koiwa (male, 47)
* Naoki Miyamoto (male, 31)
* Takahiro Kawaguchi (male, 19)
* Mai Mutō (female, 21)
* Mitsuru Matsui (male, 33)

Link to news