Knife attack at care centre for mentally disabled in Japan results in numerous deaths

JAPAN, which has rarely experienced any recent form of mass murder, is horrified by news of an attack by a former employee, named as 26-year-old Satoshi Uematsu, on the residents of a care home for people with mental disabilities on July 25.

Casualty reports differ but it appears that he stabbed over 60 people, with between 15 and 19 being killed. After doing this, the killer, blood stained and carrying the knives which he is believed to have used when stabbing the patients, drove to a local police station to give himself up.

The local police authorities have released details of the fact that Uematsu had sent letters to local politicians in February of this year threatening to kill disabled people, and he was placed in hospital under observation for two weeks at that time.

The centre, which is in the city of Sagamihara about 50 kilometres from Tokyo, is set in attractive grounds and houses approximately 150 residents at any time. The killer entered by breaking a window in the middle of the night and then proceeded to randomly attack residents aged between 19 and 70, before leaving to surrender to the police.