10 injured on Tokyo train as knife attacker wanted to kill 'happy women'

A man with a knife attacked 10 passengers on a commuter train in Tokyo on Friday and was arrested by police after fleeing, fire department officials and news reports said.

Tokyo metropolitan police said early Saturday they seized a man in his 30s who brandished a knife and caused injuries to nine people inside carriages of a commuter train. The Tokyo Fire Department said nine of the 10 injured passengers were taken to nearby hospitals, while the 10th was able to walk away. All of those injured were conscious, fire department officials said.

A woman in her 20s was seriously injured, NHK public television said. It said the suspect left his knife behind as he fled, and later gave himself up at a convenience store.

The suspect told police he became incensed when he saw women who 'looked happy' and wanted to kill them, Japanese media reported on Saturday.

Police arrested the 36-year-old man in another part of Tokyo after he slashed and stabbed people in the attack at about 8:40pm (1140 GMT) on Friday on a train on the Odakyu Line in the western part of the city, media reported.

One victim, a female university student, was seriously wounded, while the rest suffered less severe injuries.

The Sankei newspaper reported that the suspect told police, "I began feeling like I wanted to kill women who looked happy about six years ago. Anyone was fine, I just wanted to kill a lot of people."

Other media, including broadcaster NHK, reported similar quotes from suspect.

A police spokesman said they had nothing further to share on the details of the case when asked about the media reports on Saturday.

Violent crime is rare in Japan but there has been a spate of knife attacks by assailants unknown to the victims.

In June 2008, a man in a light truck drove into a crowd in the popular Akihabara district and then jumped out of the vehicle and started stabbing pedestrians, leaving seven dead.