Arson attack on Kyoto anime studio kills 33
Print Edition
A MAN shouted “die” as he doused an animation studio with fuel and set it ablaze in Japan yesterday, public broadcaster NHK said, killing at least 33 people in the nation’s worst mass murder in nearly two decades.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the attack in the city of Kyoto — the latest grisly killing in a nation widely known for its low crime rates — “too appalling for words.”
Police detained a 41-year-old man who had shouted “die” as he poured what appeared to be petrol around the three-story Kyoto Animation building shortly after 10am, NHK reported.
Thirty-three people were confirmed dead, an official for the Kyoto City Fire Department said. Most of the dead and the 36 injured were workers at Kyoto Animation, known for mega-hit stories featuring high school girls, with places featured in the stories even becoming “pilgrimage sites” for their fans.
Japanese media reported the fire might have been set near the front door, forcing people to find other exits and possibly delaying their escape.
Fire engulfed the building as black smoke billowed from its charred windows. It was Japan’s worst mass killing since a suspected arson attack on a Tokyo building in 2001.
Shiro Misaki, a 47-year-old owner of a neighbourhood bar five minutes from studio, said he was driving nearby when he saw the thick smoke.
“Policemen were stopping traffic and it was really hazy with smoke,” he said. “Even after I got back to my restaurant I could smell the smoke.”
The prime minister said the cause was arson. “Today, many people were killed and wounded in an arson murder case in Kyoto,” Abe said in a post on Twitter.
“It is too appalling for words.”
Some of the victims were found in the studio, some on the third floor and others in a staircase leading up to the roof, the fire official said.
Officials said firefighters were still searching inside the building in case anyone else was left behind.
The suspected arsonist was injured and was being treated in hospital, so police could not question him, NHK said.
Kyoto police declined to comment.
A witness who saw the suspect being approached by police told Japanese networks that the man admitted spreading gasoline and setting a fire with a lighter. She told NHK public television that the man had burns on his arms and legs and that he was angrily complaining that something of his had been “stolen,” possibly by the company.
NHK footage also showed sharp knives police had collected from the scene, though it was not clear if they belonged to the suspect.
Survivors who saw the attacker said he was not their colleague and that he was screaming “(You) die!” when he dumped the liquid and started the fire, according to Japanese media. They said some of the survivors got splashed with the liquid.
Witnesses said they heard bangs coming from the building, others said they saw people coming out blackened, bleeding, walking barefoot, Kyodo News reported. Rescue officials set up an orange tent outside the studio building to provide first aid and sort the injured. Fire department officials said more than 70 people were in the building at the time of the fire.
Kyoto Animation, better known as Kyoani, was founded in 1981 as an animation and comic book production studio, and its hits include “Lucky Star,” “K-On!” and “Haruhi Suzumiya.” The company does not have a major presence outside Japan, though it was hired to provide secondary animation work on a 1998 “Pokemon” feature that appeared in US theaters and a “Winnie the Pooh” video.
“I am heartbroken,” Hideaki Hatta, the studio’s chief executive told reporters. “It is unbearable that the people who helped carry Japan’s animation industry were hurt and lost their lives in this way.”
There was an outpouring of support for the studio on Japanese-language social media, with some users posting pictures of animation. Many posted with the hashtag “#PrayForKyoani.”
A cloud-funding site also started up to help the company rebuilt.
The studio has an outsized impact on Japan’s animation industry that outstrips the list of works it has produced, said Tokyo-based film commentator Yuichi Maeda.
“It has a huge presence in animation here. To have this many people die at once will be a huge blow to the Japanese animation industry,” he said.
Violent crime is relatively rare in Japan but occasional high-profile incidents have shocked the country.
Less than two months ago, a knife-wielding man slashed at a group of schoolgirls at a bus stop in Kawasaki, just south of Tokyo, killing one girl and the father of another, while injuring more than a dozen children.
The death toll exceeded a 2016 mass killing in which a man stabbed and killed 19 people at an assisted living facility in western Tokyo. A fire in 2001 in Tokyo’s Kabukicho entertainment district killed 44 people in Japan’s worst known case of arson in modern times.
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