Teen says he threw bomb because his pride was hurt

TOKYO – An 18-year-old student accused of throwing a homemade bomb into a classroom in southern Japan said he planned the attack because “his pride had been hurt” by other students.

One male student was seriously injured with cuts to his legs and abdomen, and another student broke his finger in the attack Friday at Hikari public high school in Yamaguchi prefecture. Of the 58 students treated after the incident, 17 were hospitalized.

Police said the boy fashioned the bomb from a glass bottle packed with nails and gunpowder stripped from firecrackers.

The more severe injuries were caused by the nails, Asahi TV and the Mainichi newspaper reported. Public broadcaster NHK said the teen told police he used instructions from a Web site to make the bomb.

Investigators uncovered evidence indicating the suspect had also been building a second bomb, Kyodo News agency reported.

The teen was arrested soon after the attack on charges of assault. But police have not ruled out the possibility of raising that charge to attempted murder, the Yomiuri newspaper said.

School officials and news reports described the boy as quiet, courteous and a conscientious student who never skipped class and had an academic record “above average.” The suspect’s name was being withheld because he is a minor under Japanese law.

But they also described a loner who was often bullied since middle school and was extremely withdrawn.

“Of course we will be looking into whether bullying may have had something to do with the incident,” school official Norio Fukano said.

When the boy threw the bomb into the classroom, it burst into flames and exploded with a loud bang as it landed just in front of the teacher’s desk, spreading shards of glass, nails and white smoke across the room.

The school, which is known as one of the best in the area, sent all students home on Friday but will resume classes on Monday, Fukano said.

The bombing was the latest high-profile attack at a Japanese school and reignited worries about a rising trend in juvenile crime and Internet-linked violence. Last June, an 11-year-old schoolgirl stunned the country when she murdered her sixth-grade classmate with a box-cutter because of a spat over the Internet. The incident prompted many Japanese to question whether adults were being vigilant enough about children’s use of the Internet.