A man screaming “You die!” rushed into an animation studio in Kyoto (Japan), doused it with a flammable liquid and set it on fire on 18th July, killing 33 persons. Thirty-six others were injured, some critically, in the blaze. The suspect, a 41-year-old man, was injured and taken to hospital. An onlooker said, the suspect was seen angrily complaining that something of his had been “stolen”, possibly by the company. The man, identified later as Shinji Aoba, told the police, the studio had plagiarised his novel.
The attack has sent shock waves in Japan and the world over.
Most of the victims were employees of the animation studio, Kyoto Animation, which does work on feature films and TV serials and shows. The studio is best known for its mega-hit stories featuring high-school girls. The stories are so popular that some of the places depicted in them have become like pilgrimages for fans.
People in the studio tried to escape through the roof as the fire probably started from the front door. Firefighters found around 20 of the 33 bodies on the third floor of the studio and some in the staircase to the roof.
Kyoto Animation, better known as Kyo Ani, was founded in 1981 as an animation and comic book production studio. It did secondary animation work in the 1998 film, Pokémon, and Winnie The Pooh video.
Shinji Aoba had served time in prison earlier for robbing a convenience store in 2012 and, after his release, lived in facilities for former convicts. He had received care for mental illness.