Chiba –

Police arrested a 15-year-old male junior high school student in the city of Chiba on Monday on suspicion of murdering an 84-year-old woman.

The teen allegedly stabbed Yayoi Takahashi in the back with a knife-like object on a street in the city's Wakaba Ward at around 5 p.m. Sunday. He is admitting to the allegation, investigative sources said.

Police are investigating the possibility that he randomly attacked the woman as they did not know each other, according to the sources.

At around 5:10 p.m. Sunday, police received an emergency call that an elderly woman was lying on a street in Wakaba Ward. Police officers rushed to the scene and found Takahashi in a pool of blood.

Takahashi was rushed to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.

The site of the stabbing is in a residential area about 300 meters north of Sakuragi Station on the Chiba Urban Monorail.

"I'm of the same generation as the victim, and I wouldn't be able to resist if I were attacked from behind," said a woman in her 70s who lives near the site.

"It's a safe neighborhood, and this is the first time something like this has happened since I moved here 30 years ago," she added.

"I heard a lot of children didn't go to school today," the day after the incident, said a 68-year-old man who was picking up his grandchild from a nearby elementary school. "I told my grandchild to use a personal alarm if anything happens."