3 arrested over online threats

Japanese police have arrested three people for threatening in online messages that they would commit crimes, apparently imitating a man who posted notes on the Internet before killing seven people in a June 8 rampage, news reports said.

“I’m sick of it all. I’m going to do it too,” wrote a 29-year-old on one site, vowing to kill 100 people in a popular Tokyo shopping district, according to reports on major newspaper websites and national broadcaster NHK.

Police made arrests only in cases where the writers said they were targeting specific neighborhoods, the Yomiuri newspaper website reported.

Asahi newspaper reported that a junior high school student threatened to burn down a train station in Niigata, northwestern Japan, on June 30 and then “randomly commit murders.” The report said the youth had been detained.