Police in Japan are investigating whether a serial poisoner is responsible for killing as many as 48 elderly patients by injecting disinfectant into their intravenous drips.

Suspicions began after an autopsy showed two elderly patients had been poisoned in Oguchi Hospital, Yokohama.

Sozo Nishikawa and Nobuo Yamaki, both 88, died on 18 and 20 September respectively after having a drip administered.

Investigators found 10 unused intravenous drip bags with small holes in their rubber seals on the fourth floor of the hospital, where the two elderly patients had died, The Japan Times reports.

Police believe the suspect may be an insider with medical knowledge.

They are now also investigating the deaths of 46 elderly patients since July, who were being treated on the same floor as the two deceased men.

Hospital staff told the newspaper there had been no outbreaks of infection which could account for the deaths.

The two patients died around a lightly staffed three-day public holiday. The entrance to the hospital was locked and guarded at night.

Last month, a staff member's lips became blistered after they consumed a drink that may have been laced with bleach, The Japan Times said in another report.

It is unknown whether the incidents are related.

The investigation comes two months after the killing of 19 people at a facility for the disabled near Tokyo. </s> Police said on Monday that a German nurse who was jailed for murdering two patients, is suspected of killing 84 others.

Oldenburg police chief Johann Kuehme told journalists that the additional murder cases arose after investigations dug up the remains of 134 people with links to the man.

Kuehme said the number of victims could be even higher as some of the deceased had been cremated.

If convicted, the man identified only as Niels H. under reporting rules, would be one of Germany’s most prolific serial killers.

German broadcaster, NDR, said in past hearings, he admitted deliberately injecting patients at two clinics in northern Germany with deadly drugs and then trying to revive them in order to play the hero.

The man, now aged 40, was convicted in the northern city of Oldenburg of two charges of attempted murder and two counts of murder in 2015.(Reuters/NAN) </s> FRANKFURT, Aug 28 (Reuters) - A German nurse jailed for murdering two patients is suspected of killing at least 84 other people, police said on Monday.

The man, identified only as Niels H. under reporting rules, has "confessed in many of those cases", a police statement said, but could not remember all the details of his actions. If confirmed, the death toll would be among the worst ever compiled by a German serial killer.

In past hearings, Niels H. admitted deliberately injecting patients at two clinics in northern Germany with deadly drugs and then trying to revive them in order to play the hero, German broadcaster NDR said.

He was convicted of two charges of attempted murder and two counts of murder by an Oldenburg court in 2015.

Police said on Monday that they had investigated additional deaths at hospitals in the northern German cities of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst after exhuming the remains of 134 people with links to Niels H.

They said he had used five different drugs on the patients, including alkaloid ajmaline and arrhythmia drug sotalol, between 1999 and 2005.

Toxicological reports for 41 people have not been completed, which means the number of victims could rise, police said.

Prosecutors have also charged six people who worked with Niels H. at the Delmenhorst hospital on suspicion of failing to stop the killing even though they were aware of it.

Ten years ago, a German nurse was convicted of killing 28 elderly patients. He said he gave them lethal injections because he felt sorry for them. He was sentenced to life in prison.

In Britain, Dr. Harold Shipman was believed to have killed as many as 250 people, most of them elderly and middle-aged women who were his patients. Known as Dr. Death, Shipman was sentenced to 15 life terms in 2000; he died prison in 2004, apparently a suicide. (Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Larry King) </s> More than a quarter of Japan's population is aged 65 and above, putting a strain on medical and nursing facilities, where long hours and low pay discourage workers, a problem the government has vowed to tackle.

September's deaths follow the stabbing deaths of 19 residents of a home for the disabled in July, and the indictment of a former worker of a nursing home for killing three residents by throwing them off a balcony.

Police have said autopsies showed poisoning as the cause of death of two 88-year-old male patients on Sept. 18 and 20. Media said the men died as they received intravenous drip injections on the fourth floor of a Yokohama hospital.

A task force has been set up to conduct an investigation, police in the Kanegawa prefecture, south of the capital, said in a statement on Sept. 23.

Police believe someone probably injected disinfectant into their drip feed bags, media said, adding that no arrest had been made, and police were checking if the deaths could be linked to others on the same floor.

Replying to a query from Reuters whether police had told the hospital of autopsy findings that a surfactant, widely used in disinfectant and cleaning products, was present in the bodies, Yuki Uehara, a lawyer for the hospital, said, "Yes".

He did not elaborate.

From July until Sept. 20, as many as 46 other patients died on the same floor, or an average of 18 a month. That outstrips the monthly average of eight deaths on that floor during the 12 months to June, Uehara said.

He added, however, that the number of seriously ill patients in the hospital had risen from April onwards, which could partially explain the increase in the number of deaths.

Japan's social security system is creaking as the numbers of old people grow. Health ministry data show that abuse of elderly patients by nursing facility workers rose 36 percent in the year ending March 2015, to hit a record of 300 cases. </s> Police say nurse convicted of murdering patients by injecting them with deadly medication may have killed scores more.

A former German nurse serving a life sentence for murdering patients by injecting them with a deadly medication is suspected of killing 84 other people, according to police.

If convicted, the man identified only as Niels H. under reporting rules, would be one of the worst serial killers in the country's criminal history.

A court order to exhume scores of former patients treated by the suspect found traces of the medication in 84 cases, Johann Kuehme the police chief in the northern German city of Oldenburg told a press conference on Monday.

Kuehme said police believe that the numbers of deaths could be even higher. However, many of the patients who died have since been cremated.

In past hearings, the nurse, now aged 40, admitted deliberately injecting patients at two clinics in northern Germany with deadly drugs and then trying to revive them in order to play the hero, German media said.

'Murders could have been prevented'

An Oldenburg court sentenced H to life in prison in February 2015 on two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder and causing bodily harm to patients.

During his trial in 2015, the former nurse also confessed to murdering more patients during his career.

His confession prompted police to establish a special commission to investigate the deaths at two clinics where he worked - in Oldenburg and the nearby town of Delmenhorst.

The commission has been analysing hundreds of medical records and has exhumed more than 100 bodies to test them for traces of drugs.

In June 2016, police and prosecutors concluded that the man had killed 33 patients at the clinic in Oldenburg and that he had done so out of a desire to win approval by taking heroic measures trying to resuscitate them.

He injected patients with a drug so that they suffered heart failure or a shut down their circulation systems.

Two former senior physicians and the head of station at the Delmenhorst clinic are also facing manslaughter charges in relation to the deaths of the patients.

Investigators said their probe into the events at Oldenburg clinic are still ongoing.

"The murders could have been prevented," said Kuehme, with investigators believing that those responsible at the time could have acted faster.

"The clinic in Oldenburg knew about the irregularities," said Kuehme. </s> BERLIN — A German nurse serving a life sentence for murdering two of his patients is believed to have killed at least 86 people entrusted to his care, officials said Monday, in what they described as an imagination-defying series of crimes.

The nurse, identified as Niels Högel, was sentenced to life in prison in February 2015, after he confessed and a court in the northern town of Oldenburg found him guilty of administering overdoses of heart medication to some patients in an intensive care ward in Delmenhorst. He was convicted of two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder and causing bodily harm to patients and is serving his sentence.

During his trial, the former nurse had also confessed to intentionally inducing cardiac crises in 90 of his patients, 30 of whom he said had died. That prompted officials to launch an investigation into the deaths of some 130 of Mr. Högel’s former patients. The results were presented on Monday in Oldenburg.

At least 84 of the convicted killer’s former patients were found to have died after suffering from injections of five different forms of medication, Johan Kühme, the chief of police in Oldenburg told reporters. </s> A German nurse currently serving a life sentence in prison for murdering six patients may have killed 84 more, making him one of the country’s worst ever serial killers, police and prosecutors said Monday.

Niels Hoegel, 40, was jailed in 2015 after being convicted of killing six people.

Authorities have subsequently investigated hundreds of deaths, which included exhuming bodies of former patients in the clinics where Hoegel worked in Delmenhorst and Oldenburg in northwest Germany.

Police told CNN they believe Hoegel killed 36 patients in Oldenburg between 1999 and 2001, and another 48 people from the hospital in Delmenhorst.

Police say the number of victims may be even higher but the final number may never be known as some possible victims were cremated.

In past hearings, Hoegel admitted to injecting patients with a drug that can cause heart failure or circulatory collapse so he could then try to revive them, French news agency AFP reported.

He said he felt euphoric when he managed to bring a patient back to life, and devastated when he failed, AFP said.

Johann Kuehme, the Oldenburg police chief, told journalists at a press conference Monday that the number of victims had left authorities “speechless.”

“The killings could have been prevented if the people responsible at the time — and I stress at the time — particularly at the Oldenburg clinic but also later on in Delmenhorst hadn’t hesitated to alert authorities, for example the state prosecution,” he said. </s> A knife-wielding man has attacked a group of schoolchildren waiting for a bus in the Japanese city of Kawasaki near Tokyo.

At least 18 people were injured in a residential area. Two of them, an 11-year-old girl and a 39-year-old man, have died.

A suspect, a man in his 50s, stabbed himself in the neck after his rampage and later died in hospital.

Violent crime is rare in Japan and the motive for the attack is unknown.

The suspect was holding knives in both hands as he attacked the victims - 16 of whom were schoolgirls.

Police later named the victims of the fatal attack as Hanako Kuribayashi, who was in the sixth grade, and foreign ministry official Satoshi Oyama, who is believed to be the parent of another child.

The suspect has not been named.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe condemned the attack, saying he felt "strong anger" against it.

"It is a very harrowing case. I offer my heartfelt condolences to the victims and hope the injured recover quickly," Mr Abe said.

How did the incident unfold?

The incident took place just before 08:00 local time on Tuesday (23:00 GMT Monday) near a local park and a train station.

A number of students were waiting to board their bus to the nearby Caritas elementary school, a private Catholic school.

The driver of the Caritas bus told NHK that he saw a man approach the queue of students.

He began stabbing the children and then boarded the bus and stabbed children inside as well, according to the BBC's Japan correspondent, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes.

News agency Kyodo said the man was heard shouting "I'm going to kill you" during the attack.

He was apprehended by police and later died in hospital from injuries.

Emergency services arrived at the scene and set up medical tents to treat the wounded.

Locals have now begun placing flowers outside the site of the attack in a tribute to the victims. </s> Police in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, have arrested a 38-year-old man after he kept his mother’s body in their apartment for a year.

According to police, Ryotaro Taniguchi, a company employee, lived with his mother – who was bedridden -- until she died at the age of 76 in June last year. He was quoted by police as saying his mother died of an illness and that he didn’t want to spend money on a funeral for her.

On Friday, Taniguchi told a work colleague about his mother and his colleague contacted police who found the woman’s skeletonized remains in a futon.

Police are investigating to see whether Taniguchi continued to receive his mother's pension payments after her death.

© Japan Today
Authorities arrest a Japanese man for killing as many as 48 elderly patients at the Oguchi Hospital in Yokohama.