A rescued passenger is carried away on a stretcher by medics shortly after police stormed a hijacked bus to free the passengers in the early morning of May 4 at the Higashi-Hiroshima parking area on the Sanyo Expressway. KYODO PHOTO
Officials said it was the first death in a bus hijacking in Japan, of which there have been seven since 1994.
More than 20 helmeted officers smashed their way into the intercity bus at an expressway service area, using smoke bombs and flash grenades as cover. They pulled the hostages to safety through windows and dragged the 17-year-old hijacker out the front door.
The youth, whose identity cannot be revealed because of his age, was taken to a nearby police station. Police said he was calm and had admitted to the hijacking but gave no motive. Media said he had been released earlier on May 3 from a mental hospital to spend the Golden Week ho1iday with his family.
Police said all the remaining hostages - nine women passengers, including the 6-year-old girl, and the driver, 57 - were safe following the 5 a.m. raid.
Nearly a dozen hostages escaped or were released during the hijacking. The hijacking began 30 minutes after the bus pulled out of the city of Saga, when the bespectacled teenager held a 40-cm kitchen knife to the driver's throat and ordered him to drive north.
The 6-year-old girl who became the hijacker's human shield through much of the ordeal was unharmed. She had been taking her first bus trip alone to visit her grandmother for the Golden Week holiday.
The hijacker led police on a 300-km chase from Saga to the expressway service area near Hiroshima. He had demanded cash, a gun and to be taken to Tokyo.
The young man was expected to be charged as a juvenile because he is under 20 and was too young to face the death penalty.
While Japan has one of the lowest crime rates in the world, a series of seemingly inexplicable crimes have occurred in recent years, often committed by young men. on May 2, a 17-year-old high-school boy from an affluent family was arrested in central Japan for allegedly stabbing an elderly woman to death. Police quoted the suspect as saying that he "wanted to experience killing someone."
Last July, a young man armed with a knife took over a jumbo jet with 517 people on board over Tokyo because, he said, he enjoyed video games and wanted to try the real thing. He killed the pilot before he was subdued.