TOKYO — A disgruntled worker drove over people at a Mazda factory on Tuesday, killing one and injuring 10, stunning Japan just two years after an auto worker went on a deadly rampage in central Tokyo.
Toshiaki Hikiji, 42, was arrested about an hour later on attempted murder charges after fleeing in his car from Mazda's Ujina plant in Hiroshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, police said.
Japanese media reports said Hikiji was a contract worker who had been let go in April. He bore a grudge against the automaker and went there with a knife with the intention to kill, they said.
But Mazda Motor Corp. spokesman Kotaro Minagawa said he had quit in April on his own, citing personal reasons, after working just eight days at the plant, and there had been no reports of troubles.
