THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
February 16, 2022 at 18:38 JST
Blue tarps are draped on an apartment building in Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture, on Feb. 15 where a male high school student and a woman were found collapsed in a corridor on the second floor. (Satoru Ogawa)
TAKATSUKI, Osaka Prefecture--A 17-year-old male high school student and a woman were found lying unconscious in her apartment building here after the student allegedly broke in and attempted to kill her and himself, according to police.
Osaka prefectural police on Feb. 15 searched the house of the private high school student in Osaka Prefecture on suspicion of attempted murder.
The student and the woman, 40, were found collapsed in an outside corridor on the second floor of a three-story apartment building in Takatsuki at around 6 p.m. on Feb. 14.
Police said the woman had apparently suffered a blow to her head that fractured her skull, while the student had stab wounds to his chest. They were rushed to a hospital to receive treatment for life-threatening injuries, according to police.
The woman’s daughter, who is in her late teens, sought help after an assailant visited their apartment on the second floor of the building and started scuffling with her mother, police said.
The daughter told officers from the Takatsuki Police Station that an unknown man disguised as a delivery person broke into her apartment, according to investigative sources.
But she recognized the assailant as her former junior high school classmate when the officers told her his name, which they had obtained during their investigation. She indicated that he was her former boyfriend, sources said.
Investigators found a cardboard box with the logo of a home delivery company on it in the woman’s apartment. They also discovered a bloody knife, stun gun, rope, gag, handcuffs and other items in the room and an expandable baton in the corridor.
The prefectural police believe the student broke into the apartment and had carried in the weapons in the cardboard box.
The student was found collapsed in the corridor near the entrance to the apartment, while the woman was lying a short distance from him in the same corridor. Police suspect the student hit the woman over the head with the expandable baton and then stabbed himself.
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