5 elderly people stabbed to death in W Japan

A stabbing spree in Japan has left five elderly people dead, in a rare case of major violence that shocked people in the Asian country.

Officials said on Monday that the five were slain some time before 7:00 a.m. (2200 GMT Sunday) in the small city of Sumoto, located on Awaji Island in western Japan.

According to Keizo Okumoto, deputy police chief of the city, the bodies of a man and a woman were found in one house, while another injured man and two unconscious women were discovered in a nearby house. The trio died after being taken to a hospital.

Media reports said that the victims were aged between 60 and 80.

Following the discovery, a 40-year-old neighbor of the dead, identified as Tatsuhiko Hirano, was arrested in connection with the brutal assault.

The unemployed man is said to have admitted to the murder, with reports describing him as a “hikikomori”, or social misfit.

Hikikomori is a term that often applies to estranged people in their late teens or early 20s, who prefer to stay away from other people for years.

Locals said the suspect, who lives with his father and grandmother, is an isolated man that hardly leaves home.

A Twitter account purportedly belonging to the 40-year-old includes a tweet with the address of the homicides and a map of the scene.

Japan rarely witnesses such violent crimes, particularly in small towns.