The suspect in an explosives attack on Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during his weekend stump speech in western Japan is believed to have arrived at the scene by train, bringing explosive devices with him onboard, investigative sources said Monday.
A security camera in the vicinity captured Ryuji Kimura, a 24-year-old man from Hyogo Prefecture, leaving the ticket gate of Wakayamashi Station roughly an hour before the explosion occurred at around 11:25 a.m. Saturday at a fishing port in Wakayama Prefecture, the sources said.
Prefectural police are confirming the footage with that taken by onboard cameras on local buses heading from the station to a stop near the port, where Kimura was around 10 meters away from Kishida when he threw the cylindrical-shaped explosive device.
The attack on Kishida came less than a year after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was fatally shot last July during a stump speech in the city of Nara before the House of Councillors election, an incident that led the National Police Agency to bolster its VIP security.
Investigative sources said the suspect brought two objects with him believed to be explosive devices, including the one used in the attack, which seems to have been a handmade pipe bomb. Fragments were found near a warehouse around 40 meters from the scene.
Kimura, who was subdued by local fishermen immediately after the device was thrown, was also found to have brought a knife with him tucked inside his backpack, with the blade's length measuring about 13 centimeters, the sources said.
According to the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters, the party released Kishida's schedule for Saturday on its website the evening before and an LDP election candidate also posted the prime minister's speech plans on social media, making it possible that the suspect planned his attack based on the information available online.
Prefectural police on Monday sent Kimura to the Wakayama District Public Prosecutors Office, where he could remain in custody until April 26, the office said.
Last year, Abe was assassinated by Tetsuya Yamagami, a former member of Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force, using a homemade weapon, despite Japan being a country that has some of the world's strictest gun laws.
Related coverage:
Japan PM denounces explosive attack just before stump speech
Japan PM Kishida unhurt after explosion during campaigning
