Man 'admits stabbing relatives to death'

A 47-year-old man is being questioned by police in Japan today after seven members of a family were found stabbed to death at two nearby homes.

The suspect confessed to the crimes after crashing his car in the neighbourhood, police said.

The man, who said he was related to the victims, told police he had stabbed the four men and three women and set fire to a third house – also owned by the same family and near where the bodies were found in the western city of Kakogawa, 280 miles south west of Tokyo.

Another relative, who lived in one of the homes, was injured in the attack and was being treated at a hospital, a Hyogo state police spokesman said.

Investigators picked up the man when he crashed his car in the area shortly after police received an anonymous call about the stabbing. No-one was injured in the crash.

Japan’s public broadcaster NHK said the suspect crashed his car as he tried to flee the scene.

Police said the man was later sent to a nearby hospital for treatment for burns and bruises believed sustained when he started the fire.

No motive for the attack was immediately known.

The four men and three women killed in the attack were aged 26 to 80, police said.