A Japanese man wielding a knife wounded 13 people Friday morning outside a railway station in Ibaraki prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, local media reported.


Police officers check the site where a stabbing incident occurred near JR Toride station in the city of Toride, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, on Dec. 17, 2010. A man stabbed people on a bus Friday morning near JR Toride station and police soon seized the man, named as Yuta Saito. A total of 13 people, including seven high school students and four junior high school students, were injured in the stabbing spree that occurred aboard two commuter buses, and were taken to hospital, the police said. (Xinhua/Kyodo)
The man slashed four people and hit others inside two commuter buses packed with students on Friday morning near JR Toride station in the city of Toride, Ibaraki, leaving a total of 13 people with minor injuries.


According to the public broadcaster NHK, 11 of the victims are high school and primary school students, and the other two are mid- aged women.


Police said the man was aboard one of the bus bound for the schools outside the exit of the station, and started slashing people around him when the departure bell went off.


He then got off the bus and hit passengers near the rotary and went aboard another bus to attack others there, the police added.


Police have arrested the man, a jobless 27-year-old identified as Yuta Saito, to investigate the motivation of the stabbing.


VietNamNet/Xinhuanet