TOKYO - A TEENAGE girl who warned she would kill people in Tokyo said she adored a young man behind a recent knifing rampage, which has set off dozens of threats of copycat attacks, police said.

The Internet has been rife with death threats since June 8 when Tomohiro Kato rammed a truck into a crowd of pedestrians and randomly slashed shoppers with a dagger in the high-tech and alternative culture district of Akihabara.

Kato, 25, had posted Internet messages on his anger and loneliness and foretold of his plans for the crime, which left seven people dead.

Tokyo police on Monday sent a 16-year-old girl to a family court for posting messages on the Internet threatening to kill people in Tokyo's Shibuya district where young people flock.

'I'll kill them all and I'll die too,' the girl said in one message sent from a cellphone to a bulletin board on child-rearing, as quoted by a police spokesman on Tuesday.

'I adore suspect Kato,' she wrote, adding: 'You're so cool, Mr Kato.' The girl, whose name was withheld as she is a minor, posted a total of 28 messages two days after the Akihabara killing, according to police.

The local police spokesman said the girl now regrets what she did.

'She had few friends as she stays home all day without going to school or work. She said it was fun to see prompt reactions from others to what she wrote in the Internet world,' the official said.

Police detained three other people on Monday for posting death threats.

A 19-year-old man was arrested in Urayasu, near Tokyo, after threatening to 'stab visitors at Tokyo Disneyland'.

'I was inspired by the Akihabara incident. I thought I'll get a lot of attention if I mentioned Disneyland,' he said, according to local police.

The Urayasu police official said that some people may post threats as pranks, but that authorities had to investigate them.

'We also hope their arrests will prevent further crimes and let people know you would be arrested if you cause social problems,' he said.

According to a website collecting online threats, 28 people have been arrested or referred to prosecutors since the Akihabara case. -- AFP

Is this article useful to you?