Boy, 15, suspected of killing parents

POLICE in Japan arrested a 15-year-old boy yesterday on suspicion of stabbing and beating his parents to death and then blowing up their apartment.

The bodies of the parents, Masanori and Keiko Nagatomo, were discovered on Monday by police as they investigated an explosion at their apartment in Tokyo.

They had multiple stab wounds and their heads had been badly beaten, an officer said. Media reports said traces of kerosene were found in the room and a gas pipe had been cut.

The boy was detained in the hot spring resort town of Kusatsu in Gunma prefecture north of Tokyo.

“I was ridiculed by my father and I felt sorry for my mother because she was always working so I decided to kill them both,” public broadcaster NHK quoted the boy as telling police.

NHK said the blast was caused by a gas explosion.

Classmates of the youth interviewed by NHK described him as a gloomy loner but said he wasn’t a victim of bullying.