Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 20, 1995 TAG: 9503210081
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: New York Times
DATELINE: TOKYO LENGTH: Medium
No group immediately claimed responsibility, but police said that they believed that an organization had set off the attacks as an act of sabotage. They said that it was ``highly possible'' that the gas was Sarin, an extremely toxic and volatile nerve gas developed by Nazi scientists in the 1930s.
``This is a case of organized and indiscriminate murder,'' Masahiro Terao, head of the Metropolitan Police First Investigative Division, said at a hastily called news conference.
Ambulance sirens wailed in Tokyo as police and rescue forces rushed to the affected subway stations on three main lines that traverse central parts of Tokyo. Among the stations where people were gassed were those serving the national Parliament and the Foreign Ministry.
As trains pulled into stations, passengers staggered out onto the platforms and collapsed. Emergency workers set up tents outside subway stations, and passengers were rushed out on stretchers and lay on the ground with bubbles coming from their mouths. In some cases, blood poured from their noses.
There were no explosions reported, and some passengers reported that a liquid appeared to come from lunch boxes wrapped in newspapers. Police said that these boxes may have been the source of the gas. They warned passengers not to touch any such box and to report it immediately.
``I saw no gas, but I saw a transparent liquid spreading on the floor, and people falling on the ground one by one,'' a young woman told Japanese television. She was not hurt.
Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama ordered an all-out rescue effort, and the government ordered increased security at all public railways, airports and ports.
One reason why police believe terrorists were responsible is that the gas came from perhaps as many as 15 different points, all in subway cars. The subway stations affected were on the Hibiya, Marunouchi and Chiyoda lines.
In one case, passengers reported that a man in sunglasses - unusual for the subway - apparently left a package behind when he got off the subway at the Ebisu station on the Hibiya line. The package was blamed for one of the gas outbreaks.
A similar but much more minor incident was reported on a subway March 5 in Yokohama, a major port city adjacent to Tokyo. Eleven passengers in a subway car were hospitalized after they complained of dizziness and eye pain, but police said this morning that they never found the source of the gas or made any arrests.
Last June, seven people died in a mysterious case of gas poisoning in Matsumoto, a city in Nagano Prefecture in central Japan. They were in their homes at the time of the poisoning, and it was unclear just how they had been gassed. Sarin was blamed for that outbreak, but police never made any arrests or determined a motive.
Sarin is not available in Japan. It is made by mixing chemicals containing fluorines and organic phosphorous, and it causes breathing problems and seizures and attacks the central nervous system. Authorities said that 0.5 milligrams of Sarin is enough to kill an ordinary sized person.
The Nazis did not use the poison gas they had developed, but Japan, in close cooperation with the Nazis, developed poison gases itself. Japan used poison gases during World War II in fighting Chinese troops - though not in battles with Americans or Europeans - and large quantities of poison gases were left behind in China at the end of the war.
Many foreigners live along the Hibiya line, near such stations as Hiroo and Roppongi, but no foreigners are known to have been among the dead or injured. The Hibiya line was closed down.
Other subway stations affected were Kamiyacho, Kokkai-Gijidomae, Hibiya, Hacchobori, Kodenmacho and Nakano-Sakaue. Kokkai-Gijidomae is the station that serves Parliament, while Hibiya is a central business district near the Imperial Palace.
Passengers reported dizziness, blurry vision and nausea. ``I was losing my sight,'' a subway employee told Japanese television. ``I couldn't see, and I was feeling dizzy.''
At one station, subway employees tried to pick up the boxes from which the fumes were coming and carry them out. Then they fainted.
``I saw people coughing, and I thought they were sick,'' a male passenger told the television. ``But then it started all over.''
There have been periodic incidents of terrorism in Japan over the years, but today's incident does not fit the pattern of past events.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB