Three dead, 18 injured in knife attack in Japan (Updated)

A group of 16 school children waiting for a bus have been attacked by a knife-wielding man in a Japanese city just south of Tokyo.

The BBC reports that at least 18 people were injured on a residential street in Kawasaki. Two of them are dead, an elementary school girl and a 39-year-old man. A suspect, a man in his 50s, reportedly stabbed himself in the neck and was later detained. He has now also died from his injuries.

Japan Times say that investigative sources said they had detained a suspect after the rampage, a man in his 50s, who later died of a self-inflicted stab wound to the area around his neck, they said. Kanagawa Prefectural Police officials said many of the victims, who were waiting at a school bus stop in Tama Ward near Noborito Station, were students at Caritas Elementary School, a private Catholic school in the same ward, police said.

They said the suspect had attacked the girls with knives in both hands. Authorities had earlier said they found two knives at the site that appeared to have been used in the attack. Police responding to the violent incident recovered two knives at the scene, said NHK.

Via BBC / Japan Times