19 people murdered in a knife massacare-attack in Japan

At least 19 people were killed and 26 injured in a stabbing spree at a facility for disabled people west of Tokyo, making it one of Japan's deadliest mass killings since World War II. Nine men and 10 women, ranging in age from 18 to 70, were killed in the attack.

Emergency workers said at least 20 of the wounded had sustained serious injuries, according to the Kyodo news agency.

Police in Kanagawa prefecture said Uematsu had driven to the nearby Tsukui police station and turned himself in after the attack.

The suspect has been identified as Satoshi Uematsu, a 26-year-old former employee at the Tsukui Yamayuri En (Tsukui Lily Garden) facility in Sagamihara in Kanagawa prefecture, about 40km southwest of Tokyo. He left his job in February.

He said he would kill 260 severely disabled people at two areas in the facility during a night shift, and would not hurt employees.

"My goal is a world in which the severely disabled can be euthanized, with their guardians’ consent, if they are unable to live at home and be active in society," Uematsu wrote in the letters given to the speaker of the lower house of parliament, Kyodo reported.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the government will do its utmost to get to the bottom of the tragic incident, while Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga separately described the stabbing rampage as “highly distressing.”