TOKYO: A 41-year-old man being held in connection with a deadly arson attack at a Kyoto animation studio has admitted to using petrol to set fire to the three-storey building and indicated that personal grudge was a likely motive, local police said on Friday.
The man, identified by the police as Shinji Aoba, has said he torched the studio of Kyoto Animation Co on Thursday, killing 33 people, as he believed it had plagiarised his ideas, they said.
Investigative sources said that when Aoba was apprehended shortly after the fire broke out at the studio in the city’s Fushimi Ward, he alleged that the production company “stole a novel”.
Aoba, whose driver’s licence shows him as a resident of Saitama, near Tokyo, has said he came to Kyoto by train, the sources said.
He is being treated at a hospital for burns to his face, chest and other body parts. It is rare for Japanese police to disclose the identity of a person who has not yet been formally arrested.
His association with the company, known internationally for producing a number of popular animation works, has not been independently verified and the police plan to question him after his condition improves.
Many victims of the studio fire are believed to have tried to escape the inferno by climbing up to the roof but were unable to open the door. They are believed to have died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
The death toll from the fire, which was finally extinguished at 6:20am Friday, is among the worst in recent decades in Japan. More than 30 people were also injured.
About 70 people were inside the studio when the suspect burst through the entrance on the first floor around 10:30am Thursday and started the fire.
Most of the 33 people who died in the attack were found on stairs leading to the building’s rooftop, police and firefighters said Friday.
Nineteen victims were found collapsed on the stairs connecting the third floor to the rooftop and the door at the top was closed when firefighters arrived.
In addition to the 19 victims found in the stairwell leading to the roof, 11 were found dead on the second floor, two on the first floor and one on the stairs between the second and third floors, the police said.
Aoba entered the building screaming “Die!” and immediately splashed a flammable liquid from a bucket before setting it ablaze, according to the police.
The authorities believe he was the man who was witnessed buying gasoline from a gas station near the site on Thursday morning and that he carried two 20-litre cans to the studio on a cart.
The man fled after the blaze was set but was chased by studio employees who eventually caught him. He collapsed to the ground outside a house and was quickly surrounded by police.
“They are always stealing. It’s their fault,” he told policemen bending over and asking him why he set the fire, according to a witness who described the scene outside her house. The man complained bitterly about something that had been stolen from him, the witness told NHK and other networks.
The suspect was considered a troublemaker by neighbours of the apartment believed to be his in Saitama.
A neighbour knocked on the man’s door earlier this month to ask him to stop banging on the walls, but he was instead yelled at, “I will kill you,” according to the TBS network. The neighbor alleged the man pulled his hair and grabbed him by the chest.
Many people came to offer prayers and flowers near the studio, where charred shelves and paper could be seen scattered inside through broken windows.
“I still can’t sort out my feelings and I can’t get over it,” said a 27-year-old woman who came from Nagoya after learning of the incident.
A 71-year-old man working near the site said he walked past several Kyoto Animation employees Thursday morning. “I feel really sorry for them,” he said tearfully.
Kyoto prefectural police chief Hideto Ueda also offered flowers and called the arson an “unprecedented, unforgivable crime”, while pledging a thorough investigation into the motive and background of the attack.
Kyoto Animation, known also as KyoAni, has produced popular TV animation series including K-On! and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu), which depict the daily lives of high-school girls.
Its works have prompted many fans to visit areas associated with them and promoted local tourism.
A former school building in Toyosato, Shiga Prefecture, attracted 100,000 visitors in a year at its peak as the school in K-On! is said to be modelled on it.
As of March, the company had 165 employees with an average age of 33, according to its website.