Nineteen people have been stabbed to death and 25 more injured in one of Japan’s worst ever mass killings after a former employee rampaged through a facility for the disabled.

日本一家残疾人福利院遭遇一名前雇员持刀行凶，19人被刺死，另有25名伤者。这是日本有史以来最严重的屠杀事件之一。

According to the fire department and local media, a man broke into the care facility in Sagamihara, on the outskirts of Tokyo, at about 2.10am on Tuesday morning.

日本消防部门和当地媒体称，周二凌晨2时10分左右，一名男子闯入相模原市（位于东京附近）的残疾人福利院。

He entered by smashing a ground-floor window with a hammer and restrained a member of staff with a cable tie before entering the areas where residents were sleeping and stabbing them.

该男子用锤子砸碎一楼窗户后进入室内，接着用尼龙扎带将一名工作人员捆住，随后进入居住区，用刀刺向熟睡中的住院者。

The attack was reported to police at about 2.45am. Shortly after 3am, police arrested 26-year-old Satoshi Uematsu, who turned himself in at the local police station saying: “I did it.”

警方在凌晨2时45分接到此次袭击的报警。凌晨3时过了没多久，警方逮捕了26岁的植松圣(Satoshi Uematsu)，他到当地派出所自首称，“是我干的”。

The incident is one of the worst mass attacks in Japanese peacetime history, with a death toll exceeding the 12 killed by the Aum Shinrikyo cult’s poison gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995.

这是日本在和平时期发生的最严重的大规模袭击事件之一，致死人数已超过1995年奥姆真理教(Aum Shinrikyo)信徒在东京地铁发动毒气袭击的致死人数，当时有12人丧生。

The dead include nine men and 10 women aged between 19 and 70 who were stabbed in the neck. Twenty of the 25 injuries are serious.

死者包括9名男子、10名女子，年龄在19岁到70岁之间，死因为颈部刺伤。25名伤者中有20人伤势严重。

There is no indication of terrorism and police are still investigating the circumstances and motive. According to the Nikkei newspaper, the suspect told police: “Disabled people should not exist”.

没有迹象显示此案与恐怖主义有关，日本警方仍在调查案情和凶手动机。据《朝日新闻》(Asahi)报道，嫌疑人对警方说：“残疾人不该存在。”

The suspect lived close to the facility and was employed there from 2012 until February this year. The reasons for his departure are not yet known.

嫌疑人植松圣住在福利院附近，从2012年到今年2月一直在该福利院工作，离职原因尚不清楚。

This February, he hand-delivered a confused but chilling letter to Tadamori Oshima, speaker of the lower house of parliament, that warned of his intentions.

今年2月，他亲手向日本众议院议长大岛理森(Tadamori Oshima)递交了一封信。在这封信写得含含糊糊但令人不寒而栗的信中，植松圣预先通告了他的打算。

“I am in a position to obliterate 470 disabled people,” he wrote, saying he would target the Yamaurien facility where he worked plus one other. “I realise this is not a normal manner of expression. But when I see the exhausted expressions and lifeless eyes of the carers, then for the sake of Japan and the world, I cannot hold back from acting.

他在信中写道：“我能够除掉470个残疾人。”他还表示将以自己工作的山百合园福利院以及另一家福利院为袭击目标。“我知道这不是一种正常的表达方式。但当我看到护工们疲惫的表情和毫无生气的眼神时，为了日本和全世界，我无法忍住不采取行动。

“My goal is a world where, when seriously disable people cannot live at home or are unable to participate in society, euthanasia is possible with the agreement of their carers.”

“我想要这样一个世界，当重度残疾人士无法在家里生活或不能参与社会活动时，在他们护理者同意的情况下，可以对他们实施安乐死。”

The letter was passed to police at the time, leading to questions about whether the attack was preventable.

这封信当时被转给了警方。这就带来了一个问题：这次的袭击是否原本可以避免？

“A great number of people have lost their lives or suffered serious injury. From my heart, I send my sympathy and wish them peace,” said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “We must get to the bottom of the matter. The government will exert all its effort.”

日本首相安倍晋三(Shinzo Abe)表示：“许多人失去了生命或受到重伤。我衷心表示同情，愿他们得到安宁。我们一定要对此事彻查到底。政府将尽一切努力。”

“The United States offers our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed,” said the White House. “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.”

美国白宫表示：“美国向遇难者家属及所爱的人致以最深切的慰问。这类暴力事件从来都不可原谅，而此次袭击居然发生在一家残疾人福利院，这就令其更加令人反感、更加不可理喻。”

Although the circumstances in Sagamihara remain unclear, care facilities in Japan have come under growing strain as the number of elderly people has risen, creating a need for large numbers of carers.

虽然还不清楚相模原市的情况，但随着老龄人口增多，日本护理机构承受着越来越大的压力，迫切需要大量的护工。

Wages in the sector are low and a widespread shortage of trained carers and nurses has been blamed for a rise in incidents of elderly abuse.

日本老年人受虐待的事件有所增多，人们将此归咎于该行业工资低、受过培训的护工和护士普遍短缺。

In February a 23-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of throwing three elderly residents to their deaths at a nursing care facility in Kawasaki, also close to Tokyo.

今年2月在东京附近川崎市一家护理机构，一名23岁的员工因涉嫌将3名老人从楼上抛下摔死而被捕。

The Yamayurien facility is located in the Tsukui district of Sagamihara, Kanagawa prefecture, about 60km from the centre of Tokyo. It accommodates up to 150 mentally disabled adults.

此次发生凶案的山百合园福利院位于神奈川县相模原市津久井区，距东京市中心约60公里，收容了多达150名有心智障碍的成年人。