A male university student who was put on a nationwide wanted list following an acid attack earlier in the week at a Tokyo subway station was arrested Saturday in the southernmost prefecture of Okinawa, police said.
Hirotaka Hanamori, 25, is suspected of throwing sulfuric acid at a 22-year-old man at Tokyo Metro's Shirokane-takanawa Station in the capital's Minato Ward on Tuesday night.
The suspect is refusing to answer questions about the allegations in police questioning, investigative sources said.
Hanamori, who lives in the central Japan city of Shizuoka, allegedly threw acid as the man was riding an escalator, causing him eye injuries.
A woman at the subway station also received burns after slipping on the acid Hanamori used in the attack, the police said earlier.
Hanamori and the victim had both been part of a film club when they were students at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, according to the police.
The victim said Hanamori had been his senior in the club and did not recall any trouble between them. Hanamori currently attends a different university.
A man believed to be Hanamori was seen in security camera footage around the victim's office in Tokyo on the day of the attack, the sources said. After fleeing the scene, Hanamori returned to his home in Shizuoka later that day, they said.
The police had been tracking his whereabouts after he was spotted on a security camera at Shizuoka Station on Wednesday afternoon.
He subsequently took a flight from Chubu airport in central Japan to Naha Airport in Okinawa that evening. Upon arrival, he took a bus to a male friend's home in Ginowan, according to investigative sources.
According to a female relative, Hanamori's parents worked in the medical field before both died of illness in about the last 10 years. Following their deaths, Hanamori, an only child, lived alone in Shizuoka.
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