Pokemon shop employee stabbed to death in Tokyo’s commercial district

A female employee at a Pokemon merchandise shop was stabbed to death in Tokyo’s commercial ​district on Thursday, and the suspected assailant ‌also died after stabbing himself, shocking shoppers during children’s spring break season in Japan.

The woman, in her 20s, was stabbed ​in her neck at 7:16 p.m. local time (1016 ​GMT) in a commercial complex by a ⁠man also in his 20s, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police ​Department said. Both were pronounced dead at a hospital ​within an hour, police said.

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 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 when contacted by Reuters.

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.