Tokyo train attacker dressed as Joker wanted to murder someone to be sentenced to death | VIDEO

The man who injured 17 people, one seriously, by stabbing several of them and setting fire inside a train in Tokyo while disguised as the Joker told police he was seeking to murder someone to be sentenced to death. .

Kyota Hattori, 24, was arrested after the event, which occurred around 20:00 local time (11:00 GMT) on a train on the line Keio bound for Shinjuku Station, one of the busiest in the world, on Halloween and National Election Day.

A septuagenarian man is in critical condition after being stabbed in the chest, while the other 16 victims suffered minor injuries from a knife and smoke inhalation, according to details of the incident published this Monday by local media.

According to eyewitnesses, Hattori He got on the train brandishing a knife in one hand and a plastic bottle in the other, and walked through the car without arousing suspicion because he was disguised as the Joker O Joker, one of the villains of the Batman franchise. The passengers thought that the weapon was part of the characterization.

Hattori told investigators that he admires the antagonist from the comic book and movie series, law enforcement sources told the Kyodo news agency.

After attacking with the knife, the man moved to another car, doused the seats with flammable liquid and set them on fire.

Several recordings filmed by witnesses who were on board and that were uploaded to social networks showed scenes of panic while fleeing the smoke and flames, and even an explosion is heard while several people sob or shout: “flee.”

The train made an emergency stop at the nearest station and the flames were extinguished half an hour later.

The evacuation of the passengers had to be carried out at first through the windows, since the doors of the train and the platform were not opened immediately after the vehicle stopped.

The detainee sat waiting for the police officers, smoking a cigarette while holding the knife in his other hand, and did not resist arrest.

In his first statements to the police, Hattori would have referred to an incident that occurred on the Odakyu railway line in the Japanese capital in early August, in which a man injured ten people in another knife attack.

More recently, two men were stabbed at Ueno station in mid-October in an apparent random attack, and two other people were injured after a man sprayed acid on the face of an old acquaintance, also in the capital.

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