Kawasaki, Japan (CNN) Two people, including a 11-year-old girl, were killed and 17 other children hurt in a stabbing spree in Japan on Tuesday -- a rare act of public violence in a country considered one of the safest in the world.

The attack took place near a park in the city of Kawasaki, about 13 miles (21 kilometers) from Tokyo, authorities said. The children were waiting for the bus to the nearby Caritas Elementary School, according to the school's director Tetsuro Saito.

Saito said that the students were standing in two lines when the school's vice principal, Satoru Shitori, who was helping students get on the bus, witnessed a man holding two knives stabbing children one after another while running.

Kawasaki Police said a total of 19 people were injured, including the two victims who died. Police have named the girl who was killed as Hanako Kuribayashi. Her age was previously given as 12 by a spokesperson at Nippon Medical School Musashi Kosugi Hospital.

The adult male victim, 39-year-old Satoshi Oyama, was a father of a 1st grade student at Caritas Elementary School and a government employee. It is not clear if Oyama's child was hurt in the incident.

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