A 21-year-old female kindergarten teacher was arrested in Kagoshima city on Saturday for allegedly cutting the neck of a boy at the daycare with a knife-like object, according to police and local media reports.
The attack, which is being treated as attempted murder, is said to have occurred at around 11 a.m. on Friday at the entrance to the kindergarten, as the children were returning to the building after playing outside, NHK said on Sunday, citing the facility’s lawyer . .
The suspect, Natsuki Sasayama, was sent to prosecutors on Sunday. Sasayama reportedly told investigators, “There’s no doubt I hurt him, but I didn’t mean to kill.”
There were no witnesses and the incident was not captured on security cameras.
The victim, who is now being treated in a hospital, suffered serious injuries that will take at least a month to recover. Tsutomu Tojigamori of the Kagoshima Minami Police Station said they arrested the suspect early Saturday after questioning her and others.
In a meeting to inform parents about the incident on Sunday afternoon, the daycare center’s chairman apologized for the incident and said it would set up a panel made up of lawyers, doctors and parents to develop measures to prevent a recurrence, according to NHK reports.
The Asahi Shimbun, meanwhile, has reported that there were many cases of children in Sasayama’s class suffering scrapes and cuts.
