Osaka Police Arrest Man for Deliberately Driving into Schoolchildren in Apparent Attempted Murder

 Osaka, Japan – May 1: Authorities in Osaka have arrested a 28-year-old man on suspicion of attempted murder after he allegedly drove a vehicle into a group of elementary schoolchildren in a quiet residential neighborhood on Wednesday afternoon, local media reported.

The incident occurred around 1:30 p.m. local time, as seven children, aged seven and eight, were walking home from school. According to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, the suspect, identified as Yuki Yazawa, appeared to have deliberately targeted the children while driving a white SUV. Yazawa, an unemployed resident of Higashimurayama city in Tokyo, was arrested at the scene.

Police say Yazawa made a disturbing confession following his arrest. “I was just sick of everything so I decided to drive my car into the elementary school students to kill them,” he reportedly told investigators, according to NHK.

A seven-year-old girl suffered a fractured jaw, while the remaining children—boys and girls—sustained relatively minor injuries. All were conscious when transported to nearby hospitals.

Witness accounts suggest the attack was both deliberate and sustained. A mother in her 20s, who had arrived to collect her child, told NHK she saw the SUV continue moving after striking the children. “The car was being driven erratically, and it seems that it continued to move forward even after it had hit the children,” she said. “My son was very shocked and has been crying the whole time. He only just started elementary school last month. It’s scary. I saw the man who had been driving the car. He was very quiet and appeared to be in a daze.”

Additional eyewitnesses described seeing the vehicle reverse after the initial impact, further endangering the children. Teachers from the school reportedly intervened, pulling Yazawa from the vehicle before police arrived.

One young student who witnessed the scene recounted to MBS News: “The car suddenly came toward us. The second and third graders in front of me were injured and were bleeding from their heads after being trapped between the car and the wall.”

Police have impounded the white SUV believed to be used in the attack and are continuing their investigation into Yazawa’s motive and movements leading up to the incident, including how and why he had traveled from Tokyo to Osaka.

The attack has sent shockwaves through the local community, raising concerns over the safety of schoolchildren and the growing number of random acts of violence involving mental health distress in Japan.