Three people were injured Monday by an explosive hidden inside a plain paper bag in a residential district of Urasoe, Okinawa Prefecture, after a man picked it up and took it into his house, local police said.
The 56-year-old man, who found the bag outside his house around 6:45 a.m. as he was leaving for work, is hospitalized in stable condition along with his 27-year-old daughter and 31-year-old son, who were also injured by the explosion and suffered burns.
Okinawa Prefectural Police are investigating the incident as a possible case of attempted murder, the Urasoe police station said.
"I heard a deep explosion," a woman who lives nearby said. "It is terrifying to think it might have been an indiscriminate act (of terror)."