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Pokmon store stabbing as female worker attacked and killed by man with knife

A Pokmon Center store with raided by a man with a knife who then attacked and killed a female worker before turning the knife on himself. More than 100 customers were present at the time

[All hell broke loose at the Pokemon centre shop]

All hell broke loose at the Pokemon centre shop

A woman was stabbed to death at a Pokmon Center store when an armed man came in brandishing a knife.

The victim was killed in the Sunshine City commercial complex in the Higashi-ikebukuro district of Tokyo's Toshima Ward on Thursday. It happened at the Pokmon Center Mega Tokyo character goods store inside the complex.

Police were alerted to the incident at around 7:15pm, with reports saying a person armed with a knife entered the shop. A man said to be in his 20s attacked a female worker, also in her 20s. The attacker then stabbed his own neck, according to the Metropolitan Police Department of Tokyo.

Both were confirmed dead after being sent to hospital, the police said. According to the police, the store was open at the time and a man entered alone.

He approached a female employee behind the counter, stabbed her multiple times in the neck and other areas with a knife-like object, and then stabbed himself.

Investigators say the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is believed to have received inquiries regarding the two individuals in the past.

[More than 100 customers were present at the time of the attack]

More than 100 customers were present at the time of the attack

An employee at the company who was shopping at the store when the attacked happened said there were more than 100 customers in the store at the time, including families with children and tourists. He said he heard screams of "Run away!" and "Help!". He said: "I can't believe something like this happened."

The shop is located on the second floor and houses about 20 shops, including character shops and bookstores. A male employee in his 20s working at one of the shops said he heard from a customer who had escaped that someone had been stabbed, and that he "gradually became more and more frightened".

It comes after a double murderer who stabbed his pregnant girlfriend to death while on licence for a previous murder, has been handed a whole life order after Court of Appeal judges ruled his sentence was unduly lenient.

Shaine March was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 42 years last October for the murder of Alana Odysseos, 32, whom he stabbed and slashed 23 times at her residence in Walthamstow, east London, in July 2024.

The 48-year-old had been released from jail on a life licence in 2013 after fatally stabbing Andre Drummond, 17, in the neck at a McDonald's restaurant in Denmark Hill, south London, in January 2000. The Solicitor General referred his second life sentence to the Court of Appeal, with barristers arguing in a hearing on Thursday that March should have received a whole life order.

March also contested the duration of his sentence, with his barristers asserting it was "manifestly excessive". In a judgement, Lord Justice Edis, alongside Mr Justice Cavanagh and Judge Alice Robinson, stated: "The sentence was unduly lenient.

"We quash it, and we quash the minimum term order that the judge made, and substitute in its place a whole life order, which means that the offender will never be released."

After being informed he would spend the rest of his life in prison, March, who observed Thursday's proceedings via a videolink from HMP Belmarsh in London, addressed members of Ms Odysseos' family in court and said: "I just want to say that I am sorry."

March's trial at the Old Bailey heard that Ms Odysseos, who was expecting her third child in the early stages of pregnancy at the time of her death, was aware of his murder conviction, with safeguarding checks carried out by probation services.

March, from Surrey Quays, south-east London, pleaded guilty to her murder on the seventh day of his trial after an expert withdrew support for his diminished responsibility defence.

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