JIJI PRESS/AFP/Getty Images(KYOTO, Japan) — More than two dozen people have died in a massive fire at an animation production studio in Kyoto, Japan, which investigators are treating as arson.
An official with the Kyoto fire department told ABC News that at least 33 people were confirmed dead. Dozens of others were reported injured.
The fire broke out Thursday morning at Kyoto Animation after a man, who police say is in his 40s, broke into the building and set it ablaze, the BBC reports.
The suspect was among those injured and taken to a hospital, according to the BBC.
In a post on Twitter, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the fire “too appalling for words.”
The blaze, if an arson attack, could be the deadliest mass killing in Japan in three years. The last mass murder was in 2016 when 19 people were stabbed to death at an assisted living center near Tokyo.
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