TOKYO – A man shouted “Die!” as he sprayed a flammable liquid throughout an animation studio in Japan on Thursday and set the building alight, killing 33 people and making it the nation’s worst mass killing in 18 years.
A series of explosions triggered an inferno that swept through the three-storey workspace, leaving many of its occupants unconscious and injured, emergency services said.
Footage showed smoke billowing from the complex on the outskirts of Kyoto as rescue workers rushed to the scene.
The suspect, a 41-year-old man, was in police custody and was being treated for his injuries in a hospital, officials said.
A Japanese fire official said at least 33 people were confirmed or presumed dead, the Associated Press reported. Many bodies were found on the top floor, some collapsed on the stairs leading to the roof, the report said.
Naoyuki Takao, deputy chief of the Kyoto police investigative department, said the fire had taken hold immediately after the man ignited what appeared to be gasoline.
At least 36 people were injured, about 10 of them seriously, said Kyoto City Fire Department official Takashi Miyata. About 70 people were inside the complex when the blaze erupted, he said.
“Fire department workers have been trying to rescue them from the building,” Miyata said.
It took firefighters about five hours to contain the blaze, the Kyodo news agency reported.
On Twitter, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe described the attack as “too appalling for words” and expressed condolences to the victims.
The blaze broke out around 10:30 a.m. at a three-storey studio of Kyoto Animation Co.
Kyoto Animation was founded in 1981. In addition to making animation, it publishes novels, comics and visual books, designs characters, and manages a school, according to its website.
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