Updated | Pensioner blows himself up in Japanese park, injures three others

A 72-year-old retired soldier blew himself up in a Japanese park, killing himself and injuring three other people in an apparent suicide.

Japanese media reports suggest that the victim, a former Self Defence Force member, may have set his house on fire, blown up his car in a public car park and then blown himself up in a nearby park in the city of Utsunomiya.

A note found in the clothing of the badly burnt victim included the name of the former officer, the Japanese broadcaster NHK and other media reported. The name was not disclosed. One of the cars destroyed in a blaze in the car park belonged to the retired military man, and his house burned to the ground earlier on Sunday, the reports said.

Images broadcast by NHK showed two burnt out cars, one of which belonged to the dead man, about 200 metres from the park and a charred broken bench at the edge of the park, where a folk art festival was underway.

The back-to-back loud bangs in the park and parking lot shocked bystanders, many heading to a festival at the park on a sunny autumn day. The apparent blasts occurred at around 11.30am within about 200 metres of each other. The festival was cancelled after the incidents.

The explosion in the park injured two men aged 64 and 58, who were being treated for shrapnel wounds. The third victim was a 14-year-old school boy, state broadcaster NHK said.

The agency Kyodo News said the burnt body was found after police received a call saying a person was on fire following what sounded like an explosion.

Bystanders also reported hearing loud blasts from the car park. Flames and black smoke shot into the air and repeated bangs could be heard on video posted on the Asahi newspaper’s website. Nearby cars also were damaged.

Suicide rates have declined in Japan in recent years, but remain among the highest in the world, with around 30,000 people a year taking their own lives. Experts have pointed to the financial stress of surviving on small pensions for pushing some retired people to end their lives.

In 2015, a 71 year-old man set himself on fire on a bullet train in an incident that also claimed the life of a 52 year-old woman travelling in the same carriage.