TOKYO: The suspect in a knife and arson attack that injured 17 people on a Tokyo train on Sunday has confessed that he initially planned on attacking crowds, sources familiar with police investigations said Thursday.

The 24-year-old suspect, Kyota Hattori, who was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, said that while he originally planned to attack crowds, he abandoned the idea as he thought it would cause a commotion and people would flee, according to the sources.

The Metropolitan Police Department believes that Hattori had been preparing for an attack since around when he quit his job in June.

According to the sources, Hattori said in interrogations that although he wanted to die after quitting his job, he was unable to do so. He was quoted as saying that he wanted to receive the death penalty.

While Hattori had considered attacking crowds in Tokyo on Halloween at first, he said that he changed his plan after learning about an incident in August in which a man attacked passengers with a knife and attempted to set fire to cooking oil on a train of Odakyu Electric Railway Co.’s <9007> Odakyu Line in Tokyo.

Hattori said he thought that in an attack on a train, passengers would not be able to escape.

Hattori carried out the rampage on a limited express train bound for Shinjuku from Hachioji on Keio Corp.’s Keio Line at around 8 p.m. on Sunday (11 a.m. GMT).

Police have learned that Hattori had put his backpack, which contained objects including around 4 liters of lighter fluid, a knife with a 30-centimeter blade and pesticide, all used in the incident, in a locker at the Keio Inokashira Line’s Shibuya Station while he walked around Shibuya Station of East Japan Railway Co., or JR East, for a while from around 6 p.m. the same day.

Hattori is believed to have left the bag in the locker as he feared that he would not be able to launch the train attack if he was stopped and questioned by the police, the sources said.

Police are currently analyzing a handwritten note and a mobile phone found in the backpack.

JIJI Press