Tokyo: A mass stabbing rampage outside of Tokyo on Tuesday killed a schoolgirl, and the suspected attacker was also dead after turning his knife on himself, according to local media. Media reports said that two people were killed, though the local fire department reported one death.

The attack, in the town of Kawasaki, south of the Japanese capital, also injured 17 people, local emergency officials told AFP. The rampage that was a rare attack in a country with a low crime rate took place during the busy early morning.

The station, citing police, said that a bus driver told officials that a man holding a knife in each hand walked toward the bus and started slashing children.

Another spokesman for the department, Dai Nagase told AFP that they received an emergency call at 7:44 am, which said four elementary school children were stabbed. The attack occurred during the busy early morning commute as workers headed to their offices and children to school in Kawasaki.

Multiple police cars, ambulances, and fire engines were at the scene to take stock of the situation and carry out the rescue operation.

Although Japan has one of the lowest crime rates in the world, it has had a series of high-profile killings, including in 2016 when a former employee at a home for the disabled was accused of going on a stabbing spree that killed 19 and wounded more than 20 others.

In 2018, a man was arrested in central Japan after stabbing one person to death and injuring two others aboard a bullet train, an attack that prompted new security measures on the famed rail service.

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