Tokyo, May 25 (IANS) At least one person was taken to a hospital and around 20 people reported feeling ill on Monday after a man allegedly sprayed a substance at a shopping complex in the Ginza district of Tokyo, local media reported.

A woman at the spot made an emergency call, reporting the presence of “pungent smell” and everyone coughing at the Ginza Six shopping complex.

CCTV footage showed a man spraying an unknown substance in the building before the emergency call was made, Japan’s Kyodo News reported. He appears to have fled from the spot, and the police are searching for him.

A woman who was near the spot said she witnessed several pedestrians holding their mouths and that her throat “still feels numb and painful.”

On April 29, a man allegedly hit two high school students with a hammer and sprayed an unknown substance at several police officers in Tokyo.

The incident took place on a street in Fussa, a suburban area in western Tokyo, at around 7:20 am (local time) on April 29. One student suffered injury in the face while another sustained injury in the shoulder after the man, believed to be in his 40s, attacked them, Kyodo News reported.

According to the police, the man attacked the two students after his mother warned several students talking on the street to be quiet; however, they remained there. A person who saw the incident in a residential area near JR Fussa Station made an emergency call and reported that a man with a hammer was attacking someone.

The police said officers arrived at the spot and, while speaking with the man’s mother, were threatened by the man with a knife he had brought from home before he sprayed an unknown substance on them, injuring three.

Police stormed the man’s house, believing that he had barricaded himself inside his home. However, police only found a hammer, a knife and a spray at the man’s residence.

CCTV footage showed that the man apparently fled through a back door after spraying an unknown substance at the police personnel. None of the injuries was fatal.

–IANS

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