A blind high school student in Saitama Prefecture was tripped, kicked in the leg and injured at JR Kawagoe Station, weeks after a guide dog was attacked in the same prefecture.
The girl, a first-year student at Hanawa Hokiichi Gakuen, a school for the visually impaired in the city of Kawagoe, sustained a wound that will require three weeks of treatment, according to school officials. Her family plans to file a report with police soon, officials said on Tuesday.
According to the school, the girl was tripped by someone walking toward her as she exited the ticket gate at the station and was heading toward a bus terminal at around 8 a.m. on Monday.
As she fell, somebody kicked her right knee from behind and injured her. The girl heard a nearby man yell, apparently to the perpetrator, "What are you doing!"
But the perpetrator, whose sex and age is unclear, left without saying a word, the school officials said.
The incident follows the July stabbing of a guide dog during its owner's commute in Saitama Prefecture.
"The latest incident is similar to the stabbing case in a sense that a blind, defenseless person has been attacked," said school Principal Hiromasa Arai. "It's a malicious act and cannot be forgiven."