Police are currently on the hunt for a 44-year-old man who allegedly attacked two high school boys with a hammer and sprayed an unidentified liquid at responding police officers in western Tokyo on Wednesday morning, leaving five people injured, authorities said.
Police received an emergency call around 7:20 a.m. reporting that ¡°a man with a hammer is assaulting people¡± on a street in the city of Fussa, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said.
The suspect, Teruyuki Takabayashi, whose occupation is unknown, is alleged to have struck the two students with a hammer before spraying officers who arrived at the scene with an unknown liquid substance. Five people were injured in total, including one of the students who suffered a serious fracture to the orbital floor of his left eye, police said.
Investigators are treating the case as attempted murder and are searching for the suspect. Takabayashi is 173 centimeters tall with a shaved head, is carrying a black tote bag and was wearing a gray tracksuit at the time of the attack.
According to police, the man¡¯s mother had confronted a group of seven high school students loitering near the home shortly before the incident. The students reportedly agreed to keep the noise down but remained in the area. The suspect then emerged holding a hammer and launched the attack.
The man initially barricaded himself inside his nearby home, threatening officers with what appeared to be a survival knife. After police secured his mother¡¯s safety, the suspect used a sprayer to discharge a yellow liquid at officers, then retreated inside and continued spraying from the second floor.
About four and a half hours later, officers entered the residence, but the suspect had already fled. Items resembling a survival knife and multiple hammers were found inside, according to police.
Security camera footage later showed that the man escaped through a back entrance during the confusion caused when he sprayed liquid from within the house, investigators said.
According to police, Takabayashi had been previously arrested in October 2023 on suspicion of attempted murder after allegedly attacking a teenage boy with an axe. The injuries the boy sustained took two weeks to heal.
The incident occurred in a residential area about 700 meters northwest of JR Fussa Station.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.