About 20 people were hurt at a high-end shopping complex in Tokyo on Monday after a man released an unknown substance inside the building, according to police and fire department officials.
Tokyo police spokesman Yusuke Koide said the man sprayed the substance near an ATM on the ground floor of the Ginza Six building, located in the upscale and tourist-frequented Ginza district. Emergency services were alerted following reports of an unusual smell.
The road outside the building was cordoned off and lined with fire trucks in the aftermath, though shoppers continued entering and exiting through side entrances. At the scene, two people were seen being carried out on stretchers and loaded into ambulances, while firefighters and officials in hazmat suits escorted others into specialised vehicles for examination. Public broadcaster NHK reported that the injuries appeared to be minor.
A 70-year-old woman who had been at the mall told NHK that her throat began stinging as she approached the ATM area. She described feeling a scratchy, almost numbing sensation upon entering the ATM corner, adding that she initially assumed there had been a small fire.
The incident has unsettled many in a country still haunted by the 1995 Aum Shinrikyo subway attack, in which cult members released sarin nerve agent on Tokyo commuter trains, killing 14 people and leaving more than 5,800 others ill.