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Tokyo cops: Elderly woman threatened city worker with knife over welfare

An elderly woman threatened a city hall worker after her request for more social welfare benefits was denied (Fuji News Network)
An elderly woman threatened a city hall worker after her request for more social welfare benefits was denied (Fuji News Network)
TOKYO (TR) – An elderly woman was arrested here on Monday for allegedly threatening a ward office worker with a knife after her request to raise her social welfare benefits was denied.

Police received an emergency call saying a “woman with a knife is making a scene at a counter” at the Koto Ward office at around 10:45 a.m., the Asahi Shimbun reports (September 5).

Responding officers arrived to find a 61-year-old woman threatening a worker with a knife over a counter in the welfare benefits section on the second floor.

The woman was arrested on the spot over physical violence charges, police said, adding that nobody was injured.

The woman, who is unemployed and receives social welfare benefits, was denied her request for a raise in her benefits by a male case worker over the phone.

She showed up at the ward office an hour later armed with a knife, police said.