A female Pokemon shop worker was stabbed to death in Tokyo by a man who then killed himself.
The woman, in her 20s, was stabbed in her neck at 7.16pm local time (10.16 GMT) in a commercial complex by a man also in his 20s, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said on Thursday.
Both were pronounced dead at a hospital within an hour, police added.
Broadcaster TV Asahi said the woman was a staff member of the Pokemon Center store in the building and the perpetrator was wielding knives in both hands.
The motive remains unclear, local media reported.
Videos posted on social media showed shoppers running away from the site as ambulances converged on the building, located just a few hundred meters away from the Ikebukuro terminal, one of the busiest train stations in Tokyo.
A man in his 30s, who saw security guards and police officers running frantically inside the facility, told local media: 'I was shocked that an incident occurred in a facility frequented by families.
'It's frightening to think that I could have been caught up in it.'
A female Pokemon shop worker was stabbed to death in Tokyo by a man who then killed himself
Videos posted on social media showed shoppers running away from the site
Broadcaster TV Asahi said the woman was a staff member of the Pokemon Center store in the building and the perpetrator was wielding knives in both hands
Videos posted on social media showed ambulances converged on the building, located just a few hundred meters away from the Ikebukuro terminal, one of the busiest train stations in Tokyo
A 21-year-old female office worker from Nerima Ward who visited the store added: 'Many customers were running out of the store. If I had come a little earlier, I might have been caught up in it too.'
A spokesperson for the Pokemon Co, which operates about two dozen stores in Japan selling merchandise from the popular franchise, was not immediately available for comment.
Strict gun controls in Japan mean knife attacks are a more common form of public violence, with multiple stabbing incidents on trains and at railway stations in the past few years.
This is a breaking news story, more to follow.
