An explosive device went off in a four-wheel-drive vehicle in Koto Ward, Tokyo, early Tuesday, fatally injuring a man in the vehicle, police said.
Police identified the victim through a driver's license and other belongings as Yoshiki Kuroki, 26, unemployed, from Kitakyushu, and found a suicide manual in the sport utility vehicle, which exploded at around 3:20 a.m.
Kuroki was taken to a nearby hospital but died about one hour later from extensive burns and injuries, they said.
The SUV, which smelled of gunpowder, had stopped short of an intersection. The heaviest damage was around the front passenger seat and door, and the roof was blown off, police said.
Fragments of the vehicle shattered the windows of nearby buildings. Residents living about 100 meters away from the scene said they felt a tremor at the time of the blast.
The incident occurred about 150 meters from Toyocho Station on the Tozai Line.
Tokyo police and Fukuoka Prefectural Police are investigating a possible connection between the explosion and those that occurred May 13 and 21 in a public phone booth in front of the Nakama Municipal Government office near Kitakyushu.
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