Explosive from Kishida attack contained shrapnel to make it more lethal
Tokyo, Apr 19 (EFE).- The explosive device used in the recent attack against Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had nuts attached to it like shrapnel that could have made it more lethal, sources from the investigation said Wednesday.
The police analyze the characteristics of the apparently homemade explosive launched Saturday against the Japanese prime minister when he participated in an electoral act in a port in the city of Wakayama, in the west of the archipelago.
If they had been thrown off by the explosion, the nuts would have acted like shrapnel, increasing the lethality of the device, according to details published this Wednesday by the local press.
The structure and power of both the device that exploded and another unexploded device that was recovered from the scene of the attack when the person arrested for the incident, 24-year-old Ryuji Kimura, who is silent about the motivations, is being investigated.
The images captured by television cameras and mobile phones of some of the around 200 people who gathered in the place to listen to a speech by Kishida show one of the cylindrical metal devices, about 20 centimeters long, with nuts attached to a mechanism similar to a fuse.
The device exploded about 50 seconds after being launched, without injuring the prime minister, who was quickly evacuated before the detonation.
Since the attack, metallic remains that are believed to be from the device have been found in different parts of the port, including the cylindrical body, in a net that covered a small pond some 35 meters away from where the explosion occurred.
Investigators believe the damage to a wall about 5 meters from the pond was caused by the impact of the device ricocheting before hitting the net, suggesting that the device was thrown over the crowd that gathered there without hitting the six meter high ceiling of the venue.
The lid of the device was found in a container 60 meters from the place of detonation, according to another of the most recent details, collected today by the public channel NHK.
These preliminary analyses suggest that if it had taken a lower trajectory and the nuts had come off, the explosive could have been lethal if it hit someone.
Kimura was taking another device out of his bag when he was grabbed by a local fisherman who noticed his behavior and facilitated the arrest. The detainee also carried a lighter.
In the search of his home in the town of Kawanishi (Hyogo prefecture), about 97 kilometers northeast of Wakayama, the police seized about 90 items, including gunpowder and pipes that could have been used to make the explosive. EFE
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