Japanese police have issued arrest warrants for four American teenagers suspected of stringing a rope across a road and seriously injuring a motorcyclist.

The suspects are the children of US military personnel and police want to charge them with attempted murder.

The female motorcyclist was thrown from her moped when she struck the rope stretched across a Tokyo street.

She suffered a fractured skull and later told police that before she fell she saw four foreigners at the scene.

The four were caught on surveillance camera, prompting police to issue warrants for their arrest on attempted murder charges.

At least two of the suspects live on a US air base in Tokyo.

Japanese police are asking the US military to hand them over.