Nine people were stabbed or punched on an Odakyu Electric Railway commuter train Friday evening in Tokyo and police said they detained a man at a convenience store after he fled the scene.

Of the nine, a woman in her 20s was seriously injured with multiple stab wounds in her back and chest, while the remaining eight, all men, sustained minor injuries, investigative sources said.

Paramedics carry a stretcher bearing a person believed to have been injured in the stabbing incident on an Odakyu Electric Railway train in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward on Aug. 6, 2021. (Kyodo)

After the attack, which occurred at around 8:30 p.m. in the front carriage of a train in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward, the man in his 30s fled and was later detained by police at the convenience store in neighboring Suginami Ward, the investigative sources said.

The man admitted to the assault under questioning and will likely face attempted murder charges, the sources said.

A worker at the convenience store called the police after the man said, "I am the suspect in the incident reported by news media. I am tired of fleeing," according to the sources.

The man left what is believed to be the weapon and a mobile phone on the train, they added.

At the time of the incident, several hundred passengers were on the train and the driver brought it to a halt after hearing loud voices from the train cars.

After the suspect had left the scene, train crew guided passengers to walk along the tracks to a nearby station.

One of the train's passengers, a 19-year-old university student who witnessed the incident, said, "There were a lot of people with blood on their clothes and running away in panic."

The incident prompted Odakyu to temporarily suspend train operations between Shinjuku Station in Tokyo and Mukogaoka-yuen Station in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture.