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Tokyo: About 350 people fled their homes in northern Japan on Thursday to escape poisonous fumes released by a neighbour who killed himself by mixing detergent and other chemicals - the latest in a series of such suicides.
The panic in Otaru came just hours after national police urged Internet providers to crack down on websites spurring a wave of detergent-related suicides in which 50 people have reportedly died in the past month.
The rash of such suicides in Japan - which already has one of the world's highest suicide rates - has triggered widespread concern because the powerful fumes can seriously harm bystanders and rescuers.
In Otaru, on the northern island of Hokkaido, a 24-year-old man mixed the chemicals in his house after midnight. He died and the gas - hydrogen sulphide - escaped his home, and neighbours were alerted by the smell, a Hokkaido police official said.
The man's 58-year-old mother, who was apparently overcome by the fumes, was found unconscious nearby and was taken to a hospital.
About 350 neighbours fled to a nearby school playground where they stayed for about two hours until the fumes dispersed, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.
Girl's death
Last week at least 90 people were sickened by fumes in southwestern Japan when a teenage girl killed herself by mixing laundry detergent with cleanser in her apartment.
Also yesterday, police in Kori in northern Japan arrested a farmer for allegedly trying to kill his 82-year-old mother with the same gas by mixing toilet cleaner with mothballs in a bucket.
The farmer, Nobuya Matsuno, was mixing the chemicals when his 80-year-old father caught him and called police, a Fukushima prefecture police spokesman said.
Alarmed by the wave of detergent suicides, Japan's National Police Agency urged Internet providers Wednesday to delete materials from websites showing readers how to mix the chemicals, officials said Thursday. Some sites reportedly provide "poison gas" warnings that viewers can print out and hang outside their doors when they kill themselves.
Reports said more than 50 people have killed themselves by inhaling hydrogen sulfide in the past month. Police say they have yet to compile data on such deaths.
Deadly Gas
Smell of rotten eggs
Hydrogen sulphide gas is colourless and characterised by an odour similar to that of rotten eggs. When inhaled, it can lead to suffocation or brain damage.
Annual suicides in Japan passed the 30,000 mark in 1998, near the height of an economic slump that left many bankrupt, jobless and desperate. A total of 32,155 people killed themselves in 2006, giving the country the ninth highest suicide rate in the world, according to the government. The government has earmarked $220 million (Dh518 million) for anti-suicide programmes to help those with depression and other mental conditions.
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