A KNIFEMAN killing at least 19 people and injuring 45 at a residential care centre

Police in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, have arrested a suspect after he turned himself in, according to local reports

A KNIFEMAN has been arrested after killing at least 19 people and injuring 45 at a residential care centre for the disabled in the Japanese city of Sagamihara.

It is believed the attacker, reported to have the family name Uematsu, went on a stabbing rampage at the facility in the early hours of Tuesday morning local time.

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First footage from scene...it's reported that 19 people have died and 45 injured

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Cops were called to the scene at around 2.30am local time

Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported that the suspect was quoted by police as saying: "I want to get rid of the disabled from this world."

The alleged perpetrator is being named by the news agency Kyodo as 26-year-old Satoshi Uematsu, who reportedly handed himself in to police 30 minutes after the attack and said: "I did it."

Cops were called to the scene at around 2.30am after residents saw a man dressed in black and armed with a blade in the grounds of the Tsukui Yamayuri Garden.

TV footage taken from a helicopter over the scene showed a long line of ambulances parked outside the two-storey facility.

It appeared that emergency workers were removing the dead and treating the injured beneath a large orange tarpaulin screen.

AP:ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Emergency workers removing the dead

AP:ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Ambulance vehicles and fire trucks outside facility

Medics said that 20 of the injured people are in serious condition.

The wounded were taken to at least six hospitals in the western Tokyo area.

Twenty-nine emergency squads responded to the attack, Kyodo reported.

A man identified as the father of a patient in the facility told Japan's public broadcaster NHK he learned about the attack on the radio and had received no information from the centre.

“I’m very worried but they won’t let me in,” he said, standing just outside a cordon of yellow crime-scene tape.

REUTERS

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Cops are seen in front of the facility for disabled... where attack happened

AP:ASSOCIATED PRESS

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At least 20 injured are in a 'serious condition'

AP:ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Knifeman attacked residents of the Tsukui Yamayuri En care centre

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Scene of the crime... city of Sagamihara, west of Tokyo

Police in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, arrested the 26-year-old man on suspicion of murder after he turned himself in, according to Kyodo.

The suspect is reportedly a former employee at the facility.

Details are still emerging about the incident, but the death toll makes it the worst mass stabbing in Japan in recent years.

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