Japan explosions: Blasts in park kill at least one and injure three in Utsunomiya

Cause of blasts currently unclear

At least one person has been killed and three others are injured following twin explosions in the Japanese city of Utsunomiya.

The explosions occurred in a car park near a park in the city, which is 60 miles north of Tokyo, shortly after 11:30am (2:30am GMT), a spokesman for the fire service said.

Kyodo News service reported a burned body was found in the park after police received a call saying a person was engulfed in flames following sounds of an explosion.

The Yomiuri Shimbun said one of the parked cars exploded and burnt down two other vehicles there.

Minutes later police found a scorched, dismembered man's body inside the park, it said.

State broadcaster NHK said the cause of the blasts was currently unknown but police were investigating whether the two blasts were linked.

One of those injured is reportedly being treated for shrapnel wounds.

Police inspect the scene for the blast in the car park (AP)

NHK said the sites of the two explosions were around 200 metres apart, and police found a paper believed to be a suicide note in one of the burnt cars.

The vehicle was owned by a 72-year-old former member of the Self-Defence Forces, whose house in the Utsunomiya city had been destroyed in fire shortly before the explosions hit.

Images broadcast by NHK showed two burnt out cars in a parking lot about 650ft from the park and a charred broken bench at the edge of the park, where a folk art festival was underway.

The festival has now been cancelled, Sky News reported.

Crime is low in Japan and explosions like this are rare but there have been small pipe bomb blasts linked to extreme leftists which occasionally hit US military bases.

Last year, a homemade pipe bomb exploded at the controversial Yasukuni shrine, where Second World War soldiers accused of war crimes are honoured, damaging toilets at the facility but no one was hurt.

A South Korean man was later sentenced to four years in prison over the attack.

Additional reporting by agencies