[WhiteFeather]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080608/...94X2XMm139xg8F

The man jumped on top of a man he had hit with his vehicle and stabbed him with a knife many times," Kyodo quoted a 19-year-old witness as saying. "Walking toward Akihabara Station, he slashed nearby people at random."

The dead were six men aged 19 to 74 and a 21-year-old woman, the news agency said.

The police said a man had been arrested, and television stations showed a slight, blood-splattered 25-year-old being herded into a police car.

Witnesses said the rampage was stopped when a policeman armed with a gun confronted the man, who NHK television said was shouting as he cut down his victims.

The street, usually crowded with tourists and locals seeking cheap gadgets, was cleared by police, who searched for evidence amid pools of blood.

"It's pretty shocking, considering that I come here all the time," a man told NHK.

The rampage came on the seventh anniversary of a massacre at a Japanese primary school, when a knife-wielding janitor and former mental patient killed eight schoolchildren. He was later executed for the killings.

Although Japan has relatively little violent crime, such high-profile cases have raised public concern about violence.

Shooting deaths remain rare in Japan, although there have been some recent cases involving "yakuza" criminal gangs.