Japan has hanged a man convicted of stabbing to death eight elementary school children.
The execution this morning of Mamoru Takuma (40) took place with unusual speed, less than a year after his death sentence was finalised for the 2001 attack at a school in western Japan.
The Justice Ministry announced the hangings of two men but in keeping with its usual practice did not disclose their identities.
But media reports said the two were Takuma and Sueo Shimazaki (59), a former gang leader sentenced to death for killing three other gangsters in 1988.
Under Japan's capital punishment system, inmates and their relatives are not told of the impending execution until the day it takes place, which human rights groups say is inhumane.
Japan carries out several executions a year, usually when parliament is not in session or in December, when the nation is winding down for the New Year holidays.
Takuma, an unemployed man who had previously received treatment for mental illness, pleaded guilty to the killings and to injuring 13 other children and two teachers at Ikeda elementary school near Osaka. He was sentenced to death in August 2003.
Seven girls and a boy were killed in June 2001 when he burst into a classroom and began slashing at random with a long knife. One of the dead children was aged six. The rest were seven-year-olds.
Takuma, who told a court hearing he wanted to pay for the crime with his life, had withdrawn an appeal filed by defence lawyers.