Police arrested a 21-year-old man on Wednesday for allegedly stabbing a 19-year-old woman in Chiba Prefecture the previous day.

The man, who identified himself as Shun Ono, of Fujimino, Saitama Prefecture, is also suspected of involvement in a separate stabbing of a 14-year-old girl about 12 kilometers away earlier on Tuesday afternoon.

The man was arrested on an attempted murder charge after he allegedly approached the 19-year-old university student from behind on a bicycle and stabbed her in the buttocks with a knife around 6:35 p.m. Tuesday on a street in Funabashi, Chiba. He has denied the allegation, the police said.

About 90 minutes before the incident, a man on a bicycle stabbed the 14-year-old junior high school student in the abdomen with a knife on a street near JR Chiba Station in the city of Chiba, leaving the victim seriously wounded.

Given the similarities in the description of the perpetrators involved in the incidents provided by witnesses, the police suspect the man is responsible for the stabbing of the 14-year-old girl as well. The suspect is not believed to have been acquainted with the victims.