Three people killed in cake shop fire in Motosu City, Gifu Prefecture; home of company executive searched

After a fire broke out at a cake shop in Motosu City, Gifu Prefecture on the night of the 5th, killing three people and injuring two others, prefectural police raided the home of a deceased male company executive (70) in Mizuho City, Gifu Prefecture, on the 6th on suspicion of murder and arson of an existing building, it was revealed in an interview with the prefectural police. Prefectural police are investigating the possibility that company executives were involved, based on testimonies from people who were at the scene.

According to prefectural police, a total of 11 people, including 10 junior high school classmates, including Satomi Sono (66), who runs a cake shop, and company executives were in the two-story store/residence at the time of the fire. There is also evidence that he was playing mahjong.

Approximately 300 square meters of the building was burnt, and the company executive was found nearly naked in his car in the parking lot outside the building, and was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Inside the building, the unidentified bodies of another man were found on the first floor and a woman on the second floor. The man's cause of death was blood loss from a stab wound to the abdomen. The wound went through the middle of his abdomen. Prefectural police say they confiscated multiple knives that could have been the murder weapon at the scene.

The two injured people, including Mr. Sono, are receiving treatment at a hospital. Six other people were also rescued. A woman who was in the store at the time of the fire called 911 and said, ``A person has been stabbed. They are pouring gasoline on the store. There is a fire.''