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WORLD NEWS Friday 19 July 2019

Man shouting ‘You die’ kills 33 at Japan anime studio

By MARI YAMAGUCHI to the roof, where they
Associated Press had apparently collapsed,
TOKYO (AP) — A man Kyoto fire official Kazuhiro
screaming “You die!” burst Hayashi said. Two were
into an animation studio found dead on the first
in Kyoto, doused it with a floor, 11 others on the sec-
flammable liquid and set ond floor, he said.
it on fire Thursday, killing 33 A witness who saw the at-
people in an attack that tacker being approached
shocked the country and by police told Japanese
brought an outpouring of media that the man ad-
grief from anime fans. mitted spreading gasoline
Thirty-six others were in- and setting the fire with a
jured, some of them criti- lighter. She told NHK pub-
cally, in a blaze that sent lic television that the man
people scrambling up the had burns on his arms and
stairs toward the roof in a legs and complained that
desperate — and futile — something had been sto-
attempt to escape what len from him. She told Ky-
proved to be Japan’s odo News that his hair got
deadliest fire in nearly two singed and his legs were
decades. Others emerged Firefighters work as smoke billows from a three-story building of Kyoto Animation in a fire in Kyoto, exposed because his jeans
bleeding, blackened and western Japan, Thursday, July 18, 2019. were burned below the
barefoot. Associated Press knees. “He sounded he
The suspect, identified only on movies and TV produc- “There was an explosion, The building has a spiral had a grudge against the
a 41-year-old man who did tions but is best known for its then I heard people shout- staircase that may have al- society, and he was talk-
not work for the studio, was mega-hit stories featuring ing, some asking for help,” lowed flames and smoke to ing angrily to the police-
injured and taken to a hos- high school girls. The tales a witness told TBS TV. “Black rise quickly to the top floor, men, too, though he was
pital. Police gave no details are so popular that fans smoke was rising from win- NHK noted. Fire expert Yuji struggling with pain,” she
on the motive, but a wit- make pilgrimages to some dows on upper floors. Ten Hasemi at Waseda Univer- told Kyodo News. “He also
ness told Japanese TV that of the places depicted. there was a man struggling sity told NHK that paper sounded he had a grudge
the attacker angrily com- The blaze started in the to crawl out of the win- drawings and other docu- against Kyoto Animation.”
plained that something of three-story building in Ja- dow.” ments in the studio also NHK footage also showed
his had been stolen, possi- pan’s ancient capital after Japanese media reported may have contributed to sharp knives police had
bly by the company. the attacker sprayed an the fire might have been the fire’s rapid spread. collected from the scene,
Most of the victims were unidentified liquid acceler- set near the front door, Firefighters found 33 bod- though it was not clear if
employees of Kyoto Ani- ant, police and fire officials forcing people to find other ies, 20 of them on the third they belonged to the at-
mation, which does work said. ways out. floor and some on the stairs tacker. q

South Korea’s central

bank lowers rate amid

Japan trade row

Associated Press rate by 0.25% points in No-
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) vember and last lowered
— South Korea’s central borrowing costs in June
bank on Thursday cut its 2016.
policy rate for the first time The bank said it will “care-
in three years to shore up fully monitor developments
growth threatened by a such as the U.S.-China trade
trade dispute with Japan. dispute, Japan’s export re-
The Bank of Korea low- strictions, any changes in
ered its key interest rate the economies and mone-
by a quarter percentage tary policies of major coun-
point to 1.50% following a tries ... and geopolitical
meeting of its monetary risks, while examining their
policy committee, which effects on domestic growth
also cut its growth forecast and inflation.”
for the country’s economy The move comes amid es-
this year from 2.5% to just calating tensions between
above 2%. South Korea and Japan
The bank cited slowing ex- over Tokyo’s move to tight-
ports and domestic invest- en controls on the exports
ment and volatility in finan- of photoresists and two
cial markets related to the other chemicals to South
trade war between the U.S. Korean companies that
and China and Japanese use them to produce semi-
curbs on certain technol- conductors and display
ogy exports to South Korea. screens for smartphones
The bank had hiked the and TVs.q