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Japan blasts: one person killed and three injured at park in Utsunomiya Japan blasts: one killed and three hurt in 'ex-soldier's suicide'
(about 1 hour later)
One person has been killed and at least three injured by two near-simultaneous blasts in a Japanese park on Sunday. Two apparent explosions have hit the Japanese city of Utsunomiya, killing one person and injuring three others in what police are viewing as a possible suicide.
The explosions occurred at a park in Utsunomiya, about 100km north of Tokyo, shortly after 11:30am local time, a fire department spokesman said. It was not immediately clear what caused the blasts. Japanese media reports suggest that the victim, believed to be a 72-year-old former military officer, may have set his house on fire, blown up his car in a public car park and then blown himself up in a nearby park.
“One person was found dead,” the fire department spokesman told AFP. A note found in the clothing of the badly burnt victim included the name of the former officer, the Japanese broadcaster NHK and other media reported. The name was not disclosed. One of the cars destroyed in a blaze in the car park belonged to the retired military man, and his house burned to the ground earlier on Sunday, the reports said.
Public broadcaster NHK said a body badly damaged in the blast was found at a bicycle parking space for the park. The back-to-back loud bangs in the park and parking lot shocked bystanders, many heading to a festival at the park on a sunny autumn day. The apparent blasts occurred at around 11.30am within about 200 metres of each other. The festival was cancelled after the incidents.
Images broadcast by NHK showed two burnt out cars in a parking lot about 200 metres from the park and a charred broken bench at the edge of the park, where a folk art festival was underway. Two men were seriously injured in the park explosion, and a 14-year-old boy had minor leg injuries. No one was hurt at the small car park.
A man told the broadcaster that he “smelled gunpowder in the area” after the explosions. The agency Kyodo News said the burnt body was found after police received a call saying a person was on fire following what sounded like an explosion.
The police said they were investigating whether the incidents at the two sites were linked, but did not give further details. Bystanders also reported hearing loud blasts from the car park. Flames and black smoke shot into the air and repeated bangs could be heard on video posted on the Asahi newspaper’s website. Nearby cars also were damaged.
One of the injured people, a man, was being treated for shrapnel wounds, the broadcaster said. The person killed was also a man, but no other details were available about him or the other two wounded. Utsunomiya, the capital of Tochigi prefecture, is a city of about 500,000 people about 60 miles (100km) north of Tokyo. It is near the popular tourist destination of Nikko.
Crime rates are low in Japan, and there are no known groups waging any sort of violent campaign against the state.