Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Japan knife attack: Aerial shots show emergency crews at scene 
 
 Nineteen residents have been killed in a knife attack at a care centre for people with mental disabilities in the Japanese city of Sagamihara. 
 
 Such attacks are extremely rare in Japan - the incident is the worst mass killing in decades. 
 
 Police have arrested a man who worked at the centre until February, and who turned himself into police after the attack. 
 
 He reportedly said he wanted people with disabilities to "disappear". 
 
 The brutal killings have shocked Japan, one of the safest countries in the world. 
 
 Who was Japanese knife attacker? 
 
 "The lives of many innocent people were taken away and I am greatly shocked. We will make every effort to discover the facts and prevent a reoccurrence," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said. 
 
 Letter to politicians 
 
 The suspect has been named as 26-year-old Satoshi Uematsu. 
 
 He sent letters to politicians in February in which he threatened to kill hundreds of disabled people during a night shift, Kyodo news agency reports. 
 
 "My goal is a world in which the severely disabled can be euthanised, with their guardians' consent, if they are unable to live at home and be active in society," Uematsu wrote in a letter to the speaker of the lower house of parliament, obtained by Kyodo. 
 
 He was kept in hospital for almost two weeks before being released. 
 
 "You could say there were warning signs, but it's difficult to say if this could have been prevented," Kanagawa prefecture governor Yuji Koroiwa said. 
 
 Image copyright EPA Image caption The brutal killings have shocked Japan 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Kanagawa governor Yuji Koroiwa prays for victims of the attack 
 
 How the attack unfolded 
 
 Uematsu drove to the Tsukui Yamayuri-en care facility, located about 50km (31 miles) from Tokyo, in the early hours of the morning, armed with several knives. 
 
 He entered one of the buildings by breaking a window at 02:10 local time (17:10 GMT), a prefectural health official said, and began attacking sleeping residents one by one in their rooms. 
 
 Staff called police around 20 minutes later to report what was happening. 
 
 The stabbing rampage lasted around 40 minute across two buildings, the Associated Press news agency reports. Uematsu's 19 victims were aged between 19 and 70, Kyodo said, citing the Sagamihara City fire department. 
 
 Another 25 people were wounded, 20 seriously. Both men and women were reported to be among the dead. 
 
 Soon after the attack, Uematsu turned himself in at the Tsukui police station and reportedly admitted the attack, appearing to have driven himself there. 
 
 Pictures have emerged of the steering wheel of his car, stained with blood. 
 
 "When Uematsu turned himself in, he was found carrying kitchen knives and other types of knives stained with blood," a Kanagawa official told reporters. 
 
 Image copyright Press Eye Image caption Pictures showed the steering wheel of the attacker's car stained with blood 
 
 A neighbour described Uematsu as polite and pleasant. 
 
 "We didn't know the darkness of his heart," Akihiro Hasegawa, 73, told Reuters. 
 
 The facility, set in extensive grounds, had about 150 residents at the time of the attack, according to local officials. Nine staff members were on duty at the time. 
 
 One doctor told NHK: "The patients are very shocked and they cannot speak now." 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Police were called to the Tsukui Yamayuri Garden facility in Sagamihara 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Reporters gathered outside the home of the suspect, which is not far from the care home 
 
 One woman who said she used to work at Tsukui Yamayuri-en told local media: "They are truly innocent people. What did they do?" 
 
 Officials have ruled out any link to terrorism. 
 
 Mass killings are extremely rare in Japan, in part because strict gun control laws means almost no-one has access to a firearm. 
 
 8 June 2008 - a man drove a truck into a packed shopping district at Akihabara in Tokyo, before climbing out and randomly stabbing people. Seven people died. 
 
 8 June 2001 - man with a history of mental illness stabbed eight children to death at an Osaka primary school in 2001. 
 
 20 March 1995 - 13 people die and thousands are made ill when members of a doomsday cult release sarin gas in the Tokyo subway. 
 
 Are you in the Japanese city of Sagamihara? Have you been affected by this incident? You can share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. 
 
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 Tweet us at @BBC_HaveYourSay or text +44 7624 800 100. 
 
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 Read our terms and conditions. ||||| A police officer talks with visitors in front of a facility for the handicapped where a number of people were killed and dozens injured in a knife attack Tuesday, July 26, 2016, in Sagamihara, outside... (Associated Press) 
 
 TOKYO (AP) — The Latest on Tuesday's knife attack at a Japanese facility for the mentally disabled that left 19 dead (all times local): 
 
 7 p.m. 
 
 Hearses have entered the premises of a Japanese facility for the mentally disabled where at least 19 people were killed in a knife attack. 
 
 One hearse came out after some time, but it was unclear whether it was carrying the body of a victim of Tuesday's attack. 
 
 The media have been waiting all day outside the facility in Sagamihara, a city 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Tokyo. 
 
 Three people appearing to be a family showed up to lay flowers, but they were unable to do so, as police prevented them from coming close to the property. 
 
 ___ 
 
 2:25 p.m. 
 
 Kyodo news service has released a letter that Satoshi Uematsu, the suspect in the killing of 19 people at a facility for disabled people, allegedly was trying forward to Tadamori Oshima, the lower house speaker of Japan's parliament. 
 
 In it, Uematsu described detailed plans on how he planned to carry out such an attack during the night when there were few staff working. He wrote he would then turn himself in to the police. 
 
 Uematsu said that by killing the disabled he would stimulate the world economy and maybe even prevent a World War III. 
 
 "Now is the time to carry out a revolution and make an inevitable but tough decision for the sake of all mankind," Uematsu wrote. 
 
 12:45 p.m. 
 
 Japan's top government spokesman has called the knife attack that killed at least 19 people outside Tokyo "very tragic and shocking." 
 
 Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters Tuesday that "this is a very tragic and shocking incident where many innocent people became victims. I sincerely pray for peace for the souls of those killed and extend condolences to the bereaved families as well as those wounded." 
 
 He said police together with government will work hard on the investigation "to grasp the whole picture." 
 
 Authorities have confirmed 19 deaths at a facility for the handicapped in the city of Sagamihara. 
 
 ___ 
 
 11:45 a.m. 
 
 People living near a facility for the handicapped where 19 people were killed in a knife attack describe the facility as a friendly place whose staff and residents joined in community events. 
 
 Akie Inoue, walking with her teenage daughter, said her daughter knew the suspect from events at the facility when she was in elementary school. 
 
 "I was surprised to hear that the culprit was a person from this neighborhood," she said. "My daughter knew the culprit, I mean, they were acquainted. They would greet each other when they would meet and she tells me that he was a very kind person. We are all very shocked." 
 
 Her daughter, Honoka, said: "He had a cheerful impression. ... He was the kind of person that would greet you first." 
 
 ___ 
 
 10:45 a.m. 
 
 A U.S. government statement issued by the White House expressed shock at the "heinous attack" and offered condolences to the families of those killed in the knife attack at a facility for the handicapped in Japan. 
 
 The statement by National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said "there is never any excuse for such violence, but the fact that this attack occurred at a facility for persons with disabilities makes it all the more repugnant and senseless." 
 
 ___ 
 
 10:30 a.m. 
 
 Local government officials have identified the suspect in the knife attack as Satoshi Uematsu. 
 
 A Kanagawa prefecture official told a news conference that Uematsu entered the building about 2:10 a.m. by breaking a glass window on the first floor of a residential building at the facility for the handicapped. 
 
 Shinya Sakuma, head of prefectural health and welfare division, said Uematsu had worked at the facility until February. Japanese media reports said he is 26 years old. 
 
 The Sagamihara fire department has said 19 people were killed in the attack Tuesday morning. 
 
 ___ 
 
 9:45 a.m. 
 
 The Sagamihara City fire department says that 19 people are confirmed dead in the attack on a facility for the disabled outside Tokyo. 
 
 The fire department said a doctor or doctors on the scene confirmed the deaths around 8 a.m. Tuesday morning. ||||| 20:25 
 
 The facility is home to 149 residents aged between 19 and 75. Kyodo news agency said 40 of them are older than 60. 
 
 Local residents and relatives of the people living in the facility rushed to the scene following news of the attack but are reportedly waiting for local officials to release the names of the dead and injured, local media said. 
 
 ||||| Add a location to your Tweets 
 
 When you tweet with a location, Twitter stores that location. You can switch location on/off before each Tweet and always have the option to delete your location history. Learn more ||||| A man in his 20s stabbed at least 19 people to death at a facility for people with disabilities outside Tokyo. (The Washington Post) 
 
 A man in his 20s stabbed at least 19 people to death at a facility for people with disabilities outside Tokyo. (The Washington Post) 
 
 At 1:37 a.m. Tuesday, security cameras recorded a black car entering a parking lot, then a man getting out of the vehicle and moving toward a building. 
 
 That was the start. 
 
 The man, apparently using his first-hand knowledge of the buildings that form the Tsukui Yamayuri-en residential center for the disabled, took a hammer and smashed a first-floor window. He then climbed inside, tied up some, maybe all, of the eight caregivers on duty, stole a set of keys and began a bloody rampage. 
 
 In the worst mass killing in Japan in about 80 years, the 26-year-old local man identified as Satoshi Uematsu went through the locked rooms of the care facility, where he had worked until February, and stabbed 45 people in less than an hour. 
 
 By the time he was done, 10 men and nine women would be dead or dying, and 26 would be injured. Twenty of those would be in critical condition, some with deep stab wounds to their necks. 
 
 1 of 19 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Fatal knife attack in Japan kills 19 View Photos The victims were stabbed at a facility for the disabled outside of Tokyo, according to Japanese media. Caption The victims were stabbed at a facility for the disabled outside of Tokyo, according to Japanese media. July 26, 2016 An ambulance moves in front of a facility for the handicapped where several people were killed in a knife attack in Sagamihara, outside Tokyo. Kyodo News/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 He attacked people who could not respond to his questions, he would later reportedly tell police. 
 
 An emergency call was made at 2:37 a.m. — “something horrible is happening here,” the caller said — but the CCTV footage showed the man returning to his car before first responders arrived. 
 
 At 2:50 a.m., a tweet was sent from a Twitter account that appeared to belong to Uematsu. “Wishing for world peace. beautiful Japan!!!!!!,” it said, showing a photo of a smiling young man with dyed blond hair — the attacker’s hair was blond — and wearing a suit and tie. 
 
 A little after, Uematsu drove his badly dented black Honda sedan to the local police station and walked inside, carrying a bag containing three knives, at least one of which was covered in blood, according to local reports citing authorities. 
 
 “I did it,” he told police. “It’s better that disabled people disappear.” 
 
 He was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and unlawful entry into a building. 
 
 [Why mass violence is so rare in Japan] 
 
 By the time dawn broke over the lush green fields in this valley, 35 miles west of Tokyo, the residents of Sagamihara were left pondering questions that have plagued residents of cities such as Orlando, Nice and Munich. 
 
 Why did he do this? How could this happen? And here? 
 
 “This kind of incident is never heard of in Japan,” said Teruaki Sugimoto, 66, who lives near the care home, which is named “mountain lily garden” after the local flower that is in bloom at this time of year. A Ferris wheel on the hill behind the care center continued to turn. The air was punctuated by birdsong and announcements over police loudspeakers. 
 
 There were no quick answers. 
 
 Japan is a country with very little violent crime. There was only one gun death in this country of 127 million last year, and that was linked to yakuza gangs. 
 
 There have been occasional mass attacks, such as a 2008 incident in which a man in a truck plowed into a crowd of shoppers and then stabbed bystanders, killingseven. And the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system by members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, which killed 12 people. 
 
 But Tuesday’s rampage killed more people, becoming the worst mass killing in postwar Japan. The shock was compounded by the fact that it occurred at a care center where patients, many of whom were aged or bedridden, were completely defenseless. 
 
 About 149 people with physical and learning disabilities live at the center, and at least 30 of them had lived there for more than three decades. 
 
 The survivors remained in the care home after the attack, even after police hung blue tarp in the windows to keep out prying eyes. Moving the people would have been more disruptive than keeping them there throughout the investigation, authorities said. 
 
 The care-facility residents are a part of this small community. “We had lots of dealings with the residents during sports events and festivals,” Sugimoto said on his front doorstep. Other locals described seeing people in wheelchairs being taken for walks, or groups of residents going around picking up litter. 
 
 “As a community, we have been watching over the facility for decades,” said a woman who lived on the same street as Uematsu and gave only her surname, Enomoto. “It’s very quiet and peaceful here, so it’s a huge shock that it happened here and by someone we know.” 
 
 But there had been warnings of this dark day. 
 
 In February, Uematsu delivered a letter to the speaker of Japan’s House of Representatives in which he threatened to carry out an attack at this facility and through these very methods. 
 
 “I will carry out a massacre without harming the staff,” Uematsu wrote in the letter, copies of which were broadcast by local media. “I can kill 470 disabled people. My goal is a world where people with multiple disabilities can be euthanized with their guardians’ consent if it’s difficult for them to live at home or take part in social activities.” 
 
 Uematsu wrote that “I will carry it out at night time, when there are fewer staff on duty,” adding that he would tie up the staff who were at work. 
 
 A few days later, Uematsu told his colleagues that there was no point in seriously disabled people living, so they should be euthanized. 
 
 The colleagues alerted police, triggering a chain of events in which Uematsu was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital, where he tested positive for marijuana use — a highly illegal substance in Japan — and was diagnosed as having drug-induced psychosis. Twelve days later, he was cleared for release, with doctors declaring that he no longer presented a threat. 
 
 Those decisions are facing new scrutiny. Five days after he delivered the letter, Uematsu stopped working at the care facility, but the details of his departure remain sketchy. 
 
 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his government “will do everything to get to the bottom of the truth.” 
 
 “I send condolences from my bottom of my heart to the many people who died and those who were seriously injured,” Abe told a political meeting on Tuesday morning. 
 
 For now, the residents of Sagamihara are going through a mourning process that looks starkly different from those seen at the sites of other mass killings around the world. There are no seas of flowers in front of the care center or public outpourings of grief. 
 
 “It’s unthinkable that something like this could happen, not just in Japan but here in our community,” said Mitsuo Kishi, 76, who lives a few hundred yards from Uematsu’s house. He stood at his gate and watched a steady stream of reporters filing past, telling those who stopped about the boy who lived down the road and wanted to be a teacher like his father. 
 
 “I'm speechless. I don’t know what to say,” Kishi said. “I still can’t understand why it happened here.” 
 
 Yuki Oda contributed to this report. 
 
 Read more: 
 
 For some expats, U.S. gun violence makes Japan feel like a haven 
 
 Japan’s most salacious crime news — and the American who publishes it 
 
 Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world ||||| SAGAMIHARA, Japan (Reuters) - A knife-wielding man broke into a facility for the disabled in a small town near Tokyo early on Tuesday and killed 19 patients as they slept, authorities said, Japan’s worst mass killing since World War Two. 
 
 At least 25 other residents were wounded in the attack at the Tsukui Yamayuri-En facility for mentally and physically disabled in Sagamihara town, about 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Tokyo. 
 
 “This is a very heart-wrenching and shocking incident in which many innocent people became victims,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a regular news conference in Tokyo. 
 
 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe later told a gathering in Tokyo: “The lives of many innocent people were taken away and I am greatly shocked. We will make every effort to discover the facts and prevent a reoccurance.” 
 
 The suspect was a 26-year-old former employee of the facility who gave himself up to police. The man, Satoshi Uematsu, said in letters he wrote in February that he could “obliterate 470 disabled people”, Kyodo news agency reported. 
 
 He said he would kill 260 severely disabled people at two areas in the facility during a night shift, and would not hurt employees. 
 
 “My goal is a world in which the severely disabled can be euthanized, with their guardians’ consent, if they are unable to live at home and be active in society,” Uematsu wrote in the two letters given to the speaker of the lower house of parliament, Kyodo reported. 
 
 Uematsu was committed to hospital after he expressed a “willingness to kill severely disabled people”, an official in Sagamihara told Reuters. He was freed on March 2 after a doctor deemed he had improved, the official said. 
 
 Uematsu lived near the facility, and a neighbor described him as a polite, young man who always greeted him with a smile. 
 
 “It would be easier to understand if there had been a warning but there were no signs,” said Akihiro Hasegawa, 73. “We didn’t know the darkness of his heart.” 
 
 The suspect apparently began changing about five months ago, said Yuji Kuroiwa, the governor of Kanagawa prefecture, where the facility is located. 
 
 “You could say there were warning signs, but it’s difficult to say if this could have been prevented,” he told reporters. 
 
 “This was not an impulsive crime ... He went in the dark of the night, opened one door at a time, and stabbed sleeping people one by one,” Kuroiwa said. “I just can’t believe the cruelty of this crime. We need to prevent this from ever happening again.” 
 
 Staff at the facility called police at 2.30 a.m. local time (1730 GMT Monday) with reports of a man armed with a knife on the grounds, media reports said. The man wore a black T-shirt and trousers, the reports said. 
 
 The 3-hectare (7.6 acre) facility was established by the local government. Surrounded by tree-covered mountains and on the banks of the Sagami River, it cares for people with a wide range of disabilities. 
 
 The facility’s website said the center had a maximum capacity of 160 people, including staff. 
 
 Satoshi Uematsu (C, with a jacket over his head), suspected of a deadly attack at a facility for the disabled, is escorted by police officers as he is taken from local jail to prosecutors, at Tsukui police station in Sagamihara, Kanagawa prefecture, Japan, July 27, 2016. REUTERS/Issei Kato 
 
 “IT MAKES YOU WEEP” 
 
 Japan has one of the lowest crime rates in the world and residents of Sagamihara said they were in shock. The last murder in the area was 10 years ago. 
 
 “This is a peaceful, quiet town so I never thought such an incident would happen here,” said Oshikazu Shimo, one of many residents of the town who gathered near the facility. 
 
 Taxi driver Susumu Fujimura said of the attacker: “He said ‘we should get rid of disabled people’ but he’s the worthless one.” 
 
 “That kind of person can’t defend themselves,” Fujimura said, referring to the victims. “That’s why so many died. It makes you weep to think of somebody just murdering them.” 
 
 The dead ranged in age from 19 to 70 and included nine males and 10 females, Kyodo said. 
 
 Police had recovered a bag with several knives, at least one stained with blood, a Kanagawa prefecture official said. 
 
 At least 29 emergency squads responded to the attack, Kyodo reported, with those wounded taken to at least six hospitals in the western Tokyo area. 
 
 Such mass killings are extremely rare in Japan and typically involve stabbings. Japan has strict gun laws and possession of firearms by the public is rare. 
 
 Slideshow (14 Images) 
 
 Eight children were stabbed to death at their school in Osaka by a former janitor in 2001. Seven people died in 2008 when a man drove a truck into a crowd and began stabbing people in Tokyo’s popular electronics and “anime” district of Akihabara. 
 
 A revision to Japan’s Swords and Firearms Control Law was introduced in 2009 in the wake of that attack, banning the possession of double-edged knives and further tightening gun-ownership rules. 
 
 Members of a doomsday cult killed 12 people and made thousands ill in 1995 in simultaneous attacks with sarin nerve gas on five Tokyo rush-hour subway trains.
– Japan has been stunned and sickened by what the Guardian reports is the country's biggest mass killing since World War II: The murder of 19 people at a center for the disabled just outside Tokyo. Satoshi Uematsu, a 26-year-old former administrator at the Tsukui Yamayuri-En facility in Sagamihara, surrendered at a police station after the Tuesday morning rampage, in which victims with ages ranging from 19 to 70 were stabbed to death and another 26 people were injured, the BBC reports. The Kyodo news agency says Uematsu wrote to the speaker of Japan's House of Representatives in February, threatening to "obliterate 470 disabled people" during a night shift at the facility, which cared for people with a range of mental and physical disabilities, reports Reuters. "My goal is a world in which the severely disabled can be euthanized, with their guardians’ consent, if they are unable to live at home and be active in society," wrote Uematsu, who allegedly attacked his victims as they slept after he broke into the center at around 2:10am. Kyodo says that in the letter, Uematsu also claimed killing the disabled would help the world economy and prevent World War III, the AP notes. Authorities say Uematsu was committed to a mental hospital after sending the letter and telling colleagues that he wanted to harm disabled people, but was released on March 2 after doctors decided he had improved. The Washington Post reports that an hour before the attacks, Uematsu tweeted what is believed to be a photo of himself, with the message: "Wishing for world peace. beautiful Japan!!!!!!"