Pokemon shop employee stabbed to death in Tokyo's commercial district

Both victim and suspect die in shocking knife attack near Ikebukuro station

A female employee at a Pokemon merchandise shop was stabbed to death in Tokyo's commercial district on Thursday, and the suspected assailant also died after stabbing himself, shocking shoppers during children's spring break season in Japan.

The woman, in her 20s, was stabbed in her neck at 7.16pm local time (1016 GMT) in a commercial complex by a man also in his 20s, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said. Both were pronounced dead at a hospital within an hour, police said.

Broadcaster TV Asahi said the woman was a staff member of the Pokemon Center store in the building and the perpetrator was wielding knives in both hands.

The motive remains unclear, local media reported.

Videos posted on social media showed shoppers running away from the site as ambulances converged on the building, located just a few hundred meters away from the Ikebukuro terminal, one of the busiest train stations in Tokyo.

A spokesperson for the Pokemon Co, which operates about two dozen stores in Japan selling merchandise from the popular franchise, was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters.

Strict gun controls in Japan mean knife attacks are a more common form of public violence, with multiple stabbing incidents on trains and at railway stations in the past few years.