A car driven by a 79-year-old man ran onto the sidewalk near JR Shinjuku Station in Tokyo on Wednesday afternoon, hitting and injuring five pedestrians, police said.
The driver was quoted by the police as saying, "I had already crashed the car before I realized it." He told them that he was choking after drinking tea.
Two of the five pedestrians — a man in his 80s and a woman in her 20s — sustained serious but not life-threatening injuries.
The driver and his 76-year-old wife who was with him in the car were also slightly injured, the police said.
The incident occurred around 1:30 p.m. in a busy shopping district about 100 meters east of JR Shinjuku Station in central Tokyo.
"I heard a loud bang and rushed out to the street. There were people lying about, with some looking unconscious and bleeding," said a 21-year-old worker at a nearby sports store.