A minivan slammed into pedestrians early Tuesday on a street where people had gathered for New Year’s Eve festivities in downtown Tokyo, police said.
Eight people were injured in the crash. A ninth person was hurt when the driver got out of the vehicle and punched him.
Kazuhiro Kusakabe, 21, was arrested and being questioned, Tokyo Metropolitan Police said on customary condition of anonymity.
He is suspected of intentionally trying to kill people by driving the small vehicle through the street. NHK TV footage showed a small van with the entire front end smashed, and officers and ambulance workers rushing to the scene.
Police said a large tank filled with kerosene was found in the car. Police declined to comment on reports by the Mainichi newspaper and other Japanese media that the suspect appeared to have planned to set his car on fire, and said such possible motives were still under investigation.
Police and firefighters inspect the site near Takeshita Street in Tokyo, early Tuesday. (Yuta Omori/Kyodo News via AP)
The crash occurred on Takeshita Dori, a road that runs right by Meiji Shrine in Harajuku, Shibuya ward, and is well known to tourists and pop culture and fashion fans
Every New Year’s Eve, the train line that includes Harajuku station runs all night.
Japan is a relatively crime-free nation with strict gun-control laws. In 2008, a man drove his car into a crowd in the popular Akihabara electronic-shopping district, got off and went on a stabbing spree with a knife. Seven people were killed.
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