TOKYO, Aug 23: A 79-year-old woman slashed two women with a fruit knife near a crowded Tokyo railway station because she wanted police help after running away from a shelter for homeless people, police said on Saturday.

The victims, in their 20s, were only slightly injured in the attack on Friday night in a crowded shopping and entertainment district of the city.

The elderly woman was arrested from the scene, a spokesman at the Shibuya police station said.

“I ran away from a shelter earlier this week and I don’t have money. I thought if I caused an incident, the police would take care of me,” the spokesman quoted the woman as telling investigators. She was carrying around $59.

The incident was the latest in a string of such attacks that have unnerved the relatively crime-free country.—Reuters