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Kanagawa cops: Woman stabs supermarket worker in Kawasaki

Nippon News Network
A woman allegedly stabbed a worker at supermarket Life Arima in the back with a knife (Nippon News Network)

KANAGAWA (TR) – Kanagawa Prefectural Police arrested a woman on Sunday for allegedly stabbing a woman in the back with a knife at a supermarket in Kawasaki City.

Officers from the Miyamae Police Station arrested an unemployed woman, 21, from Midori Ward, Yokohama, on attempted murder charges for allegedly stabbing a worker at supermarket Life Arima in the back with a knife, the Asahi Shimbun reports (August 7).

The suspect has admitted to the charges, telling police she “stabbed a person who was standing near the entrance with a knife I was holding.”

Police believe the victim and suspect don’t know each other, and plan to study her motives which currently remain unknown.

Officers received an emergency call from a worker at Life Arima saying a “woman was stabbed in the back with a knife” at around 3 p.m. in Miyamae Ward, Kawasaki, the Sankei Shimbun reported.

The victim, a female part-time worker at the supermarket in her 50s, was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries that will take at least two weeks to recover from, police and fire department officials said.

The victim was conscious when she was being transported, but her current condition remains unknown as she receives treatment, Fuji News Network reported.

Male workers heard the victim scream and chased a woman fleeing the scene. They had her surrounded about 300 meters down the road when responding officers arrived and pinned her down, Nippon News Network quoted police as saying.

A person from Life Arima said the woman was stabbed in the back when she was “bending over while working at a garbage disposal area outside the store.”

Police said the victim, who they found sitting in the supermarket with blood streaming from her back, was able to return inside on her own.

Knife crime has been on the rise in Japan in recent years.

Last month, a stabbing spree that left 19 people dead at an assisted living facility in Sagamihara City, Kanagawa made headlines around the world.