Three teachers arrested amid Japan nursery abuse claims

In one case in June, one of the teachers is accused of holding a boy upside down.

Police investigators carry boxes of documents out of Sakura nursery school in Susono city, Shizuoka, central Japan (Kyodo News/AP)

Three teachers at a nursery school in central Japan have been arrested on suspicion of routinely abusing toddlers, including hitting their heads, holding them upside down and locking them up in a bathroom, in a case that has triggered outrage and allegations of a cover-up.

The Shizuoka prefectural police said they arrested three women on Sunday on suspicion of assaulting at least three toddlers in June at a nursery school in the city of Susono at the foot of Mount Fuji.