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Man Threatens Sarin Gas Attack on Akihabara as April Fools' 'Joke'
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
Swarms of police descended on Tokyo's Akihabara shopping district on April 1 after Twitter user "Saika (_S_I_K_A)" threatened to release sarin gas on the area as an April Fools' Day joke. The tweet was deleted, but other users were able to screencap it before it disappeared.
Saika later issued an apology.
今回、僕のサリン撒きますツイートで、不快に思われた方、秋葉原に実際にいかれようとした方、秋葉原に実際に居た方など、複数の人に不快感や、多少なりとも恐怖感を与えてしまったことを深くお詫び申し上げます。エイプリルフールとは言え、度が過ぎました。
本当に迷惑かけてすいませんでした。
— さいか (@_S_I_K_A) April 1, 2015
I am so sorry to all those people who were frightened by my tweet about releasing sarin gas, all those people in Akihabara at the time who were frightened, and to everyone else I upset. I went too far for an April Fools' joke. I'm so sorry for causing so much trouble.
アホが「秋葉原にサリン撒きます」とか言ったせいで秋葉原にめっちゃ警官居るんだけど マジでヤバイ奴だろこれ pic.twitter.com/ps4u5slmft
— 蒼月シルア (公式アカウント) (@Siruapoid) April 1, 2015
Sarin gas was used by the Aum Shinrikyō cult in the Tokyo subway attacks of 1995. The day's combined attacks sickened more that 6,000 people and killed 13. Police arrested Katsuya Takahashi, the last suspect in the Aum Shinrikyō cult's sarin gas attacks, in 2012.
Akihabara was also the scene of a deadly hit-and-run and stabbing rampage which killed seven people and injured 10 more. Tomohiro Katō, who was 25 years old at the time, struck five individuals with a truck at an intersection near the main Japan Railways station of Akihabara at around 12:35 p.m. on June 8, 2008. He then proceeded to leave the vehicle and stab 12 people on the streets. Katō was sentenced to death in 2011.
[Via Sirua Aotsuki, Itai News, Rocket News 24]
