The arrested driver of a car that plowed into a crowd in the Harajuku district of Tokyo at New Year has said he was planning to spray kerosene at people at a popular Shinto shrine and set them ablaze, investigative sources said Friday.
In the rented minicar used in the attack, police found a 20-liter tank of kerosene and a high-pressure water sprayer with an ignition tool attached that the 21-year-old suspect, Kazuhiro Kusakabe, said he bought to carry out the plan.
"I was going to use the sprayer and kerosene to set fire to crowds at Meiji Shrine," Kusakabe, identified by police as a resident of Osaka Prefecture, was quoted as saying, adding that he drove into the pedestrians after "things didn't go well."