Family and friends of the victims of Sunday's street stabbings were horrified to learn that their loved ones had been killed by a stranger in broad daylight in the busy Akihabara entertainment and shopping district in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo.

One of the victims, Mai Muto, 21, was stabbed in her right side with a survival knife by Tomohiro Kato. The blade penetrated her liver, and she died about four hours later at a hospital in Tokyo, according to sources.

At the scene of the stabbings on Monday, a 22-year-old man clasped his hands in prayer for the repose of her soul at a corner where bouquets of flowers and bottles of tea had been placed. He said Muto had been a high school classmate.

"She was the leader [of our choral group] at a choral-singing festival. That was the kind of outgoing person she was. I'm so angry about the outrageous way she was killed," he said.

Muto was a senior student at Tokyo University of the Arts' faculty of music. Her major was ambient music, and she was studying acoustics and recording techniques at the university, the sources said.

Toru Kamekawa, associate professor of the university, had been Muto's academic adviser since her freshman year. "She said wanted to work in concert promotion, and she was really putting a lot of energy into her job hunting," he said on Monday.

According to Kamekawa, Muto had been doing practical work late into the night at the university on Saturday and had asked Kamekawa for advice. She told him she had been given a tentative job offer, but could not make up her mind whether to accept it.

"We promised to meet again on Monday evening. I really regret not having made a point of having a long chat with her," he said.

Kazunori Fujino, 19, a sophomore at Tokyo Denki University, and Takahiro Kawaguchi, 19, a sophomore at Tokyo University of Information Sciences, were hit by the truck driven by Kato. They were scheduled to meet two other friends in Akihabara to watch a movie.

On Monday, Fujino's 50-year-old father said: "I'm so, so upset. This happened so suddenly. All I can say is that I'm filled with anger and sorrow. It feels like I'm in a bad dream...My poor boy."

His grandfather, 81, said: "Kazunori was such a kind boy. I have my lower back taped up to ease my chronic back pain, and he was the last one to do it for me."

Kawaguchi's father, Takeshi, was told by police that his son was stabbed by Kato after he was hit by the truck. Kawaguchi suffered from emphysema and had had an operation in early May. He was only recently allowed to venture outdoors, Takeshi said.

Takeshi, 53, was shown the body of his only son shortly after 11 p.m. on Sunday at Manseibashi Police Station.

"Why did you have to die? I'm so sorry I was unable to protect you," Takeshi reportedly said. "I can't understand why my son had to be killed so brutally in broad daylight," he added.

The 74-year-old wife of Katsuhiko Nakamura, 74, told The Yomiuri Shimbun, "I can't say anything, just that I'm very sad.'"

Nakamura retired as a dentist in April. On Sunday, he went to Akihabara with his son to buy some items for his personal computer, only to be one of the victims.

"We'll have lunch there," Nakamura happily told his wife when he left home.

"He was a man with a strong sense of justice," she said. "There must've been many things he still wanted to do. He died concerned about the future of his children and grandchildren."

Atsuhiko Miyamoto, the father of Naoki Miyamoto, 31, told reporters on Monday morning, "I identified [the body of my son] yesterday. I don't want to say anything [about the incident]."

A woman in Miyamoto's neighborhood, 68, said, "He and my daughter were classmates at primary school and middle school. He was a quiet and earnest person."

Another victim, Mitsuru Matsui, 33, had been attending a cooking school in Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture, and a nutrition college in Yokohama.

Shocked by the sad news, a 30-year-old man living in his neighborhood said, "He was a good man and often played with me when we were kids."

A female factory manager, 63, who lived close to victim Kazuhiro Kobayashi, 47, said sadly, "I often saw him playing catch with his son in front of his house."

Kobayashi's family released a brief statement about the incident through the Metropolitan Police Department saying: "We're knocked sideways, and unable to sleep. We'd like to mourn his passing and say goodbye."

This article was first published in The Yomiuri Shimbun on June 10, 2008.