TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a 36-year-old man for allegedly setting a bag on fire inside the Tokyo Metro Fukutoshin Line earlier this month, reports Kyodo News (June 23).
At around 3:00 p.m. on June 13, Kazuhiro Nagasawa, of no known occupation, allegedly used a cigarette lighter to set the bag on fire inside one of the eight carriages of the train as it traveled south between Senkawa and Kanamecho stations.
A staff member at a station extinguished the fire. There were no injuries in the incident, which caused a delay of 10 minutes to the line. The small blaze singed the floor of the carriage, police said.
Upon Nagasawa’s arrest on suspicion of attempted arson and disruption of business, Nagasawa said, “I aimed for a train heading to Shibuya. I wanted to cause a disturbance in Shibuya.”
The suspect surfaced as a person of interest for police after an examination of security camera footage.
Police are now investigating whether Nagasawa was also behind a fire that broke out on June 20 in some plants for a government building in Chiyoda Ward that houses the Tokyo Legal Affairs Bureau.
