Japanese police say three people have died — including the suspect — in a mass stabbing rampage at a bus stop south of Tokyo.

Key points: Police say 17 schoolchildren and two adults were stabbed

Police say 17 schoolchildren and two adults were stabbed The attacker is among the dead, having reportedly taken his own life

The attacker is among the dead, having reportedly taken his own life Police found two knives at the scene

The victims are a 12-year-old girl and a 39-year-old man, while police said the attacker, a middle-aged man, also died.

It is believed the attacker took his own life.

Police say 19 people were stabbed during the attack, 17 of them schoolchildren.

At least two people were taken to hospital in critical condition.

The attacker reportedly began slashing at people as they waited at a bus stop. ( Reuters: Kyodo News )

The attack happened just before 8:00am (local time) in the residential district of Kawasaki City.

Officers reportedly found two knives at the scene.

National broadcaster NHK reported the man began slashing at people waiting at the bus stop near a park.

More victims were found in a nearby park, as were the two knives, it said.

Japanese authorities say several people have been stabbed. ( AP: Kyodo News )

Local resident Haruna Shirakawa lives near the scene of the attack with her two young children.

"It's the first time such an incident has happened here," she told the ABC.

"I've never experienced it in my life.

"If we were here a little earlier, we could have been the victims.

"I don't know what I'd do if something like that happened to us."

Forensic scientists at the scene of the attack gathered finger prints and blood. ( ABC News: Jake Sturmer )

Violent crime is rare in Japan, but there have periodically been high-profile incidents that have shocked the nation.

A stabbing spree on a school bus and a commuter bus in a Tokyo suburb in 2010 injured more than a dozen people.

Two years earlier, a 28-year-old man drove a truck into a crowded pedestrian crossing in Tokyo, killing three people, before he fatally stabbed four more.

Police blocked off the street where the attack took place. ( ABC News: Yumi Asada )

ABC/Reuters