KYOTO: The suspect behind Japan's worst mass killing in 20 years has alleged that the targeted studio, Kyoto Animation studio, had plagiarised his work, as per local police.
Sending shockwaves amongst anime-lovers, the renowned studio was set on fire on Thursday, leaving 33 people dead in its wake. The suspect used gasoline to torch the studio in Kyoto's Fushimi-ku district, according to CNN.
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The suspect has been identified as 41-year-old Shinji Aoba, police revealed on Friday. They added that the suspect had unspecified mental health issues. He is currently sedated at a hospital due to the severe burns sustained during the attack.
74 people were in the building at the time of the blaze. Police found 20 bodies lying on the staircase leading to the roof exit, while 11 others were on the second floor. Two bodies were also found in the ground floor of the building, which has been greatly damaged.
The employees did not have time to escape as the fire spread quickly throughout the building. Several jumped out of the windows on the second and third floor, sustaining bone fractures in the process.
Thursday's attack is the worst mass killing in the Asian country since 2001 when 44 people were killed after a building was attacked in Tokyo's Kabukicho district. The death toll from the studio attack is worse than Tokyo's 1995 sarin gas attack, which killed 13 people.
A backpack with several knives and gasoline-like liquid were found near the site of the incident.