OSAKA (Kyodo) Mental health counselors said Wednesday that the 2001 massacre of eight children at an Osaka elementary school still continues to haunt pupils, including about 10 suffering posttraumatic stress disorder who are set to graduate.

On June 8, 2001, Mamoru Takuma stabbed seven second-graders and one first-grader to death at Ikeda Elementary School in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, and wounded 13 other pupils and two teachers. Takuma was executed in September 2004 for the murders.

Next week, 109 students who were second-graders at the time of the attack will graduate, with their seven slain peers on the school's list of graduates.

A team of mental-health specialists from Osaka Kyoiku University, which is affiliated with the elementary school, have been counseling the students.