TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police are investigating a Molotov cocktail attack at a festival on Sunday evening that left more than a dozen persons injured and the likely perpetrator unconscious following what is being viewed as a suicide bid, reports NHK (Aug. 7).
At approximately 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, police received a tip about “a man throwing Molotov cocktails” at the Fujimioka Tanabata Matsuri, which was held in a shopping street in the Kugayama area.
According to the Takaido Police Station, the man threw six bottles filled with liquid from the third floor of a building that burst into flames on the street. The flames reached as a high as two meters off the ground.
A firefighting crew arriving at the scene extinguished the fires in 90 minutes.
A total of 15 male and female persons, aged between 1 and 47, suffered injuries, including burns to their hands and feet. None of the injuries are considered serious.
At around the time the fires were extinguished, the body of a man, aged in his 60s, was found hanged inside the building where the bottles emerged. He is currently in a state of cardiac arrest. Police suspect that he attempted to take his own life.
