OSAKA (TR) – Osaka Prefectural Police are hunting for an assailant who stabbed a 20-year-old man attempting to break up a street fight at a summer festival in Osaka City, reports Kansai TV (July 13).
Shortly after midnight on Sunday, a passerby in Hirano Ward’s Kumata Park called emergency services to report that a young man had been stabbed in the side. The caller noted that the victim was conscious, but the attacker had already fled the scene.
Emergency responders rushed the victim, a construction worker from Nishiyodogawa Ward, to a local hospital. He sustained three puncture wounds from a bladed weapon, including a deep gash to his left flank, but his injuries are not considered life-threatening.
According to police, the young man was simply trying to play peacemaker.
“Two groups of men around my age got into a dispute,” the victim told investigators. “When I tried to intervene and stop it, I ended up getting punched and kicked.”
In the chaos of the brawl, the victim didn’t even realize he had been knifed. It was only when a bystander shouted, “Hey, you’ve been stabbed!” that he noticed his injuries.
At the time of the stabbing, the park was bustling with crowds attending the Kumata Shrine Summer Festival. While the traditional danjiri float parades had concluded earlier in the evening, food and drink stalls remained open late into the night. Police noted that alcohol was flowing freely, and several other fights had broken out in the area prior to the stabbing.
Osaka Prefectural Police are currently investigating the case as attempted murder and are searching for the suspect who fled the park.
