“My throat was scratching”: a man sprays a substance in a Tokyo shopping center, around twenty injured

A man sprayed a substance, currently unknown, in a shopping center in Tokyo (Japan) on Monday. Around twenty people were slightly injured.

Around twenty people were injured in a luxury shopping center in central Tokyo (Japan) after a man sprayed a substance there, police and fire officials said on Monday.

Tokyo police spokesman Yusuke Koide said a man sprayed a substance near a vending machine on the ground floor of the building. A local fire official indicated that around “twenty people were injured” after a report of a “smell” in this very touristy area.

Minor injuries

By midday, streets directly around the building, located in the Ginza shopping district and home to many luxury brands, were blocked off after the incident and fire trucks and ambulances lined up along the street. On the other hand, passers-by, mainly tourists, could continue to stroll on the sidewalks on the other side of the street.

An AFP journalist at the scene saw two people on stretchers being put into an ambulance, while firefighters and officials dressed in chemical protective suits took people out of the mall to be examined in specialized vehicles. Public broadcaster NHK said the injuries appeared minor. Police are investigating the cause, a fire officer at the scene said, without giving further details.

“When I arrived, the commotion had already started, and I thought maybe there had been a small fire or something. Once I entered the vending area, my throat felt scratchy, almost numb,” a 70-year-old woman who was in the shopping center told NHK television.

The painful memory of a gas attack in 1995

The Japanese capital remains marked by the sarin gas attack in the Tokyo metro, perpetrated in March 1995 by the Aum sect and which left 14 dead and more than 5,800 injured. On March 20, 1995, around 8 a.m., five disciples of the Aum sect almost simultaneously placed plastic bags filled with this liquefied gas, a virulent nerve agent, in metro trains on different lines before puncturing them with the tip of an umbrella and fleeing.

Violent crime is relatively rare in Japan, which has a low homicide rate, and its gun laws are among the strictest in the world. However, stabbing attacks and even shootings occasionally occur, such as in the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July 2022. Last December, fourteen people were injured in a stabbing attack at a factory in central Japan, during which an unspecified liquid was also sprayed.