Assailants in two cars reportedly blocked another on a Nagoya street and fatally attacked the driver with what appeared to be knives and baseball bats.

An employee at a convenience store in Nakagawa Ward called the police at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday, reporting that “a man covered in blood from head to toe” had entered the store, the police said.

The victim, who had sustained apparent knife wounds, was rushed to a nearby hospital but died of hemorrhagic shock about six hours later, the police said.

The Aichi Prefectural Police said the victim, who they believe was a foreign national in his 30s, was driving down the street when the cars carrying the assailants approached him from behind. One passed the victim’s car while the other rear-ended his vehicle.

The assailants, believed to be five or six male foreign nationals, exited their vehicles and proceeded to punch and then slash the victim with knives, the police said.

The suspects left the scene in a third car, leaving their original vehicles.

The Aichi Prefectural Police’s international investigation division set up a team at Nakagawa Police Station to investigate the slaying.

The victim, whose identity and nationality was not released, was wearing a black, short-sleeve shirt and black pants, the police said.

Analysis of the sound from video taken by a witness led police to believe the suspects were speaking Persian, the language spoken in Iran, investigative sources said.

The incident occurred in an area with numerous condominium buildings about 2 km southeast of JR Nagoya Station.

A 43-year-old resident in one of the condominiums said he went out onto his balcony after hearing a noise and saw several people assaulting a man with what appeared to be baseball bats.

The men “were wearing white surgical masks and shouting in a language I didn’t understand, and then left in a car,” he said.

The two cars used by the assailants were not stolen, but their ownership had been changed repeatedly among foreign nationals, according to the investigative sources.