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(1995) Japanese rescuers arrive at the Tokyo subway station where the attack took place – AFP / Archives
The In the morning of March 20, 1995, the passengers of the Tokyo subway did not know that a few minutes later, the city would become a stage of war, with the coup d'etat cult of Aum.
First smell, a strong chemical smell and spicy with solvent paint.
This coordinated attack, which left 13 dead and 6,300 injured, is in fact one of the most dangerous of the three
The terrible sarin, a gas originally developed by the Nazis, is released in five wagons of three Tokyo subway compositions. according to what was later known, the work of Aum Shinrikyo (Aum Verdad Suprema).
"There was spilled liquid on the floor of the car, people were having seizures on the benches, a man leaning on one of the bars, his shirt open, completely sweaty," recalls Sakae Ito.
"I had the impression of drowning, coughing a lot and I started having chills. The person sitting next to me collapsed and the emergency alarms started to sound, "says another passenger who experienced the tragedy.
Other witnesses remember seeing pieces of a wet newspaper
"I saw a fallen man."
"I saw a fallen man."
"I saw a fallen man," confirms another witness
Police receive the first warning soon after 0800 and panic spreads quickly
Metro employees scream for that person but the passengers were convulsed and could not move.
The bravest, who tried to take the victims inside the subway, were also hit and fell to the ground, while they were virtually forced trampling bodies scattered on the floor to try to breathe fresh air.
– National Panic –
On the outside, passersby watched the bewildered spectacle of passengers coming out foaming mouth and wide-eyed, reddish, improvising masks to cover his face.
Soldiers of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (official name of the national armed forces) entered the subway tunnels in porta anti-radiation suits and gas masks.
Hundreds of ambulances circulated in the streets and helicopters landed in the middle of the streets to transport the wounded to about 90 hospitals
Still images are recorded in the memory of soldiers leaving the subway carrying people in the back. The doctors tried to resuscitate the victims with heart massage in the street, in front of people who watched everything crying.
At Tsukiji Station, near the famous fish market, the St. Lukes International Hospital was crowded with victims
. ambulances, many victims were taken by taxi. Due to the lack of beds, the victims were placed on stretchers in the corridors of hospitals, transformed into first aid rooms.
Japan, shaken two months earlier by the terrible Kobe earthquake, is used to natural disasters. which is subject to a certain fatalism, but in a country where the crime is very weak, the attack provoked a national panic never seen before
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