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Man uses scarf to hang self from pedestrian bridge at Shinjuku Station

TOKYO (TR) – A man hanged himself from a pedestrian bridge in front of a busy exit of JR Shinjuku Station on Monday in an apparent suicide, police said, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Jan. 6).

At around 12:15, police were tipped off by a pedestrian about “a young man man hanged by a scarf from a pedestrian bridge” at the South Exit of the station.

The man, aged in his 30s, was transported to a hospital in a state of cardiac arrest. He was later confirmed dead, the Shinjuku Police Station.

A man hanged himself from a pedestrian bridge leading to JR Shinjuku Station on Monday (via @Johnjohn_curry on Twitter)

According to police, the man, who suffered from a mental disability, ate a meal with an acquaintance just prior to the incident. He then said to the acquaintance, “I will now die.”

In June, 2014, a man apparently protesting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s plans to revise the country’s pacifist constitution set himself on fire at the same location. He survived the incident.

Known as the Mylord Deck, the bridge, which spans Koshu Kaido street, leads to the Shinjuku Mylord shopping mall at the station.

Twitter users posted images of the incident as it unfolded on Monday. One tweet that includes a photograph is shown below. Other images — warning: highly graphic — can be found here and here.