At least 15 people, mainly school kids, have been stabbed in a Tokyo park in a brutal attack that’s left three people dead.

The 11-year-old schoolgirl who was killed in a terrifying stabbing attack near Tokyo has been described as a charming student.

According to NHK, the sixth-grade elementary school student who was killed on Tuesday morning was named Hanako Kuribayashi. A neighbour told the media outlet that she was a charming girl.

The second victim was a 39-year-old man named Satoshi Oyama, who was one of 10 Burmese language specialists at the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

Mr Oyama accompanied Burmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi to Kyoto in 2013 during the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s trip to Japan.

The head of the Japanese school that many of the injured students attended, condemned the “savage” knife attack and said he is struggling to contain his anger.

Tetsuro Saito, the head of Caritas Gakuen, told a news conference that “My heart is broken with pain when I think of the innocent children and their parents who send their children to our school with love who were victimised by this savage act. I’m struggling to fight back my anger.” Saito said school officials will take steps to address safety concerns.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has described a fatal stabbing spree near Tokyo as harrowing, adding that he is outraged and will take all necessary measures for children’s safety.

Authorities say a man carrying a knife in each hand attacked schoolgirls waiting at a bus stop in Kawasaki, just outside Tokyo on Tuesday, wounding 16 people and leaving three dead, including himself. Most of the injured were schoolgirls at a Catholic school.

Abe said: “It was an extremely harrowing incident in which many small children were victimised, and I feel strong resentment … I will take all possible measures to protect the safety of children.”

The attack occurred as Abe hosted U.S. President Donald Trump.

Emergency services were called to the horrific scene just before 8am today to reports multiple people, waiting at a busy bus stop in Kawasaki City in the south of Tokyo, had been stabbed.

Witnesses at the scene have told of the man’s terrifying rampage before he turned the knives on himself and plunged the blade into his neck.

Paramedics worked on the 57-year-old suspect at the scene as he lay on unconscious but he was unable to be revived, authorities said.

A witness told reporters the suspect screamed, “I will kill you!” before attacking the children.

The school bus driver that pulled up to the stop as the stabbing began told police he saw the man with a knife in each hand when he began slashing and stabbing people.

“A man holds a knife in both hands and walks in the direction of the bus and stabs primary school children one after another,” the driver said, according to NHK.

Most of the victims were schoolgirls who were lined up at a bus stop near Noborito Park about 2kms away from Caritas elementary school.

The school was founded by Soeurs de la Charite de Quebec, an organisation of Catholic nuns in Quebec City in Canada.

NHK, citing police, said that a bus driver told officials that a man holding a knife in each hand walked toward the bus and started slashing children. NHK also interviewed a witness who said he saw the suspect trying to force his way onto a bus.

The attacker’s identity and motives weren’t immediately known.

Television footage showed emergency workers giving first aid to people inside an orange tent set up on the street, and police and other officials carrying the injured to ambulances.

According to the New York Times, parents were sent messages to pick up their children from the school and a steady stream of students were escorted away from Caritas by the parents.

A man living near the park told the broadcaster he saw school bags scattered everywhere.

“There is a nearby elementary school bus stop and elementary schoolchildren are down and school bags are also scattered,” the neighbour said, in a translated quote.

“A man was down on the bus stop of the city bus about 20m away from the elementary school bus stop with blood. Usually, it is a peaceful place and it is scary it happened.”

Authorities say the knife-wielding man started attacking people at random as commuters lined up for a bus.

Forensic police have seized two knives at the scene and the man, in his 50s, has been arrested.

Although Japan has one of the lowest crime rates in the world, it has had a series of high-profile killings, including in 2016 when a former employee at a home for the disabled allegedly killed 19 and injured more than 20 others. In 2008, seven people were killed by a man who slammed a truck into a crowd of people in central Tokyo’s Akihabara electronics district and then stabbed passers-by.

Also in 2016, a man stabbed four people at a library in northeastern Japan, allegedly over their mishandling of his questions. No one was killed.

— With AP