At least 19 residents have been killed at a care centre for people with mental disabilities in the Japanese city of Sagamihara, after a local man unleashed a knife attack on residents.
According to Reuters, Satoshi Uematsu, 26, a former employee at the facility in Sagamihara town in Kanagawa Prefecture, about 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Tokyo, later turned himself in to the police after the incident.
At least 25 other residents of the facility were wounded in the attack.
He reportedly told the police that he wanted people with disabilities to “disappear”.
Broadcaster NTV reported that the arrested man presented a letter to the speaker of the lower house of Japan’s parliament in February calling for euthanasia of disabled people.
“My goal is a world in which, in cases where it is difficult for the severely disabled to live at home and be socially active, they can be euthanised with the consent of their guardians,” it quoted the letter as saying.
The attack has shocked japan, one of the safest countries in the world.
Such attacks are extremely rare in japan and the incident is the worst mass killing in decades.
