Japan knifing suspect had said he was willing to kill disabled-official

TOKYO: The suspect in a fatal stabbing spree in Japan on Tuesday had been hospitalised early this year after expressing a willingness to kill disabled people if the government approved, a city official said.

Police in the town of Tsukui near Tokyo contacted the suspect, Satoshi Uematsu, and he was involuntarily committed to hospital on Feb. 19 after he had tried to present a letter to the speaker of the lower house of Japan's parliament, said an official from nearby Sagamihara city who declined to be named.

Uematsu told police he would kill many severely disabled people if the national government approved such an action, the official told Reuters by phone. He was discharged on March 2 after a doctor deemed his condition had improved, the official said.

Nineteen people were stabbed and killed in their sleep and at least 25 wounded at a facility for the disabled in Sagamihara in the early hours of Tuesday.