At least 23 people are dead and dozens injured after a suspected arson attack at an animation studio in Kyoto, Japan, local emergency officials have said.<\/p>\n
Local media quoted police as saying a man broke into the Kyoto Animation Co studio on Thursday morning. Police say the suspect, a 41-year-old, sprayed petrol before igniting it.<\/p>\n
Some people still remain unaccounted for, broadcaster NHK reported.<\/p>\n
The suspect has been detained and was taken to hospital with injuries.<\/p>\n
The fire broke out at the three-storey building at around 10:30 local time (01:35 GMT) on Thursday. Rescue operations are still ongoing.<\/p>\n
Police also found knives at the scene, say local media.<\/p>\n
NHK said the man had been heard saying “drop dead” as he set fire to the building.<\/p>\n
It is not clear what relationship the suspect may have had with the company.<\/p>\n
Eyewitnesses described a loud explosion followed by an inferno that rapidly engulfed the building.<\/p>\n
It is feared more victims could still be on the top floor, which was filled with thick smoke.<\/p>\n
“Several other people appeared to have failed to escape on the second floor,” a fire department spokesman told AFP.<\/p>\n
Japanese officials said at least 23 people were dead or “in cardio-pulmonary arrest” – a formulation routinely used in Japan for victims who have died but whose deaths have not yet been officially confirmed.<\/p>\n
A fire official told reporters that at least 10 victims had been found on the stairs linking the second floor to the roof.<\/p>\n
Some 36 people are in hospital, some in a critical condition, reports say.<\/p>\n
About 70 people were in the building when the fire started, fire officials say.<\/p>\n
Latest reports say the man is not a former employee and does not have any obvious connection to the studio.<\/p>\n
Some Japanese newspaper reports say the suspect ran away from the building towards a nearby station after the fire started but fell to the ground.<\/p>\n
“A person with singed hair was lying down and there were bloody footprints,” a 59-year-old woman living nearby told news agency Kyodo.<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At least 23 people are dead and dozens injured after a suspected arson attack at an animation studio in Kyoto, Japan, local emergency officials have said. Local media quoted police as saying a man broke into the Kyoto Animation Co studio on Thursday morning. Police say the suspect, a 41-year-old, sprayed petrol before igniting it. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":569,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567\/revisions\/569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}