The Kyoto Fire department confirmed that one person has died and 12 people were found with "no vital signs" inside the building, which belonged to the Kyoto Animation Co. In Japan, deaths must be confirmed by a doctor before being officially announced.
Kyoto police said that a man poured what appeared to be gasoline around the studio and set it on fire. The 41-year-old suspect was taken into police custody.
Fire department officials said an additional 38 people were injured, with ten believed to be in a serious condition.
The fire broke out at about 10:30 a.m local time on Thursday (9:30 p.m.ET) and police said a resident reported hearing a sound like an explosion coming from the studio.
About 48 fire engines have been dispatched to the area and are currently trying to get the fire under control.
Footage from the scene shows thick smoke billowing out of the four-story building, which is located in a residential area several kilometers south of Kyoto Station, as firefighters worked to douse the flames.
Founded in 1981, Kyoto Animation -- known as KyoAni -- is based in southern Kyoto prefecture's Uji and produces animations and publishes anime novels, comics and books, according to its website. Among the studio's most famous works are "Free!", manga series "K-On!", the anime TV adaptation of "Haruhi Suzumiya" and "Violet Evergarden" which Netflix picked up in 2018.
The company's philosophy as posted on its website includes keeping a "humanitarian" corporate culture and believes that "promoting the growth of people is equal to creating the brightness of works."
There was an outpouring of grief on Twitter Thursday with fans of the studio offering their condolences.
The Kyoto Fire department confirmed that one person has died and 12 people were found with "no vital signs" inside the building, which belonged to Kyoto Animation Co. In Japan, deaths must be confirmed by a doctor before being officially announced.
Kyoto police said that a man poured what appeared to be gasoline around the Kyoto Animation studio and set it on fire. The suspect, described by police as being in his 40s, has been taken into custody.
Fire department officials said an additional 38 people were injured, with ten believed to be in a serious condition.
The fire broke out at about 10:30 a.m local time on Thursday (9:30 p.m.ET) and police said a resident reported hearing a sound like an explosion coming from the studio.
About 48 fire engines have been dispatched to the area and are currently trying to get the fire under control.
Footage from the scene shows thick smoke billowing out of the four-story building as firefighters work to douse the flames.
Founded in 1981, Kyoto Animation is based in southern Kyoto prefecture's Uji and produces animations and publishes anime novels, comics and books, according to its website. Among the studio's most famous works are manga series "K-On!" and the anime TV adaptation of "Haruhi Suzumiya."
The building is located in a residential area several kilometers south of Kyoto Station.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For some U.S. officials, the Trump administration’s failure to persuade Turkey not to buy a Russian air defense system may have its roots in a coup attempt against President Tayyip Erdogan three years ago this week.
FILE PHOTO: People walk past Russian S-400 missile air defence systems before the military parade to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the battle of Stalingrad in World War Two, in the city of Volgograd, Russia February 2, 2018. REUTERS/Tatyana Maleyeva/File Photo
While they recognize that worsening U.S. relations with Turkey in recent years and Russia’s growing clout with Ankara may also have helped sway Turkey toward buying the S-400 system, three U.S. officials and a defense source told Reuters of another working theory that has gained ground within the Trump administration.
One reason Erdogan may have chosen to buy from Russia rather than from a fellow NATO member is that he might be wary of his own air force, which played a major role in the coup attempt on July 15, 2016, these officials say.
S-400 missiles, which Turkey began taking delivery of last Friday, would be better at fending off any attack on the Turkish government from its own jets than a U.S.-supplied Patriot system would, experts say.
Raytheon Co’s’s Patriot missiles, which have been on offer to Turkey, would have safeguards to help avoid “friendly fire” against other NATO warplanes, such as Turkish air force jets.
“You have to ask yourself: Why would Erdogan really want a Russian system?” one of the U.S. officials asked. “He doesn’t trust his air force.”
Two other U.S. officials and a defense source familiar with NATO discussions about Turkey, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, put forward the same theory about the long-time Turkish leader’s possible motivation.
“There’s some talk that he wants the (Russian) system just to protect himself. He doesn’t want a NATO-integrated system,” one of the officials said.
A senior Turkish official denied that concern about the military was a motivating factor in the decision and said Turkey has been purging supporters of the coup attempt, including from the armed forces.
“Turkey is not worried about another coup attempt and it trusts its own army and pilots,” he said, when asked about the U.S. speculation.
Another Turkish official, with knowledge of the S-400 deal, said Ankara had always wanted to buy Patriots but was forced to turn to Russia.
“There was no uncertainty about this (wanting Patriots),” he said. “However, the U.S.A. had a delaying attitude during Obama’s term of office.”
Erdogan himself has said Turkey bought the S-400s because Russia made him a better deal, and Turkish officials sought tough terms from the United States on Patriot pricing, joint production and technology transfer.
President Donald Trump has publicly defended Erdogan, saying Ankara only chose the Russian system because Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, failed to offer him a viable U.S. alternative until it was too late.
But the Turkish purchase has upset Washington and could drive a wedge into the heart of NATO.
The Pentagon, which sees the S-400 as a threat to the most modern stealth fighter jet in its arsenal, the F-35, announced on Wednesday that the United States would drop plans to sell the jet to Turkey.
JETS IN THE COUP
Turkish air force pilots played a major role in the abortive putsch, commandeering jets and helicopters that bombed the parliament building and threatened a government plane that Erdogan was flying in. The coup attempt collapsed within hours but 251 people died and more than 1,500 were wounded.
In June, a former head of the Turkish air force, Akin Ozturk, was sentenced to life in prison for his involvement in the coup. Just this month, Turkish prosecutors ordered the arrest of 176 more military personnel over their links to the alleged coup-plotting network.
Another of the U.S. officials described a 2018 meeting with American officials in which Turkish officials, when talking about buying a new air defense system, described their own air force as one of the top security threats facing the country.
“A Turkish bureaucrat said the primary threat to the government remained from Turkey’s own air force, which operated NATO aircraft and had attacked government installations and attempted to assassinate President Erdogan during the July 2016 coup attempt,” said the official, who had detailed knowledge of the meeting but did not attend it.
“And the S-400 system was designed to counter NATO aircraft,” the official said.
To be sure, even proponents of the theory that Erdogan’s worries about his own military fueled the S-400 purchase acknowledge there were almost certainly other factors behind it.
Those include Russia’s growing power in the Middle East, splits between Ankara and Washington over the war in Syria, and even Erdogan’s own sense of pride in the face of U.S. pressure to back out of his deal with Russia.
Erdogan has also been angered by Washington’s refusal to extradite Fethullah Gulen, a Pennsylvania-based Muslim cleric who Turkey says engineered the coup. Gulen denies involvement.
Some U.S. officials long held out hope that they could eventually sway Erdogan into forgoing the S-400 in favor of Patriot missiles, only to see their offers frequently rebuffed.
FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters during a ceremony marking the third anniversary of the attempted coup at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, Turkey, July 15, 2019. REUTERS/Murad Sezer/File Photo
Soner Cagaptay, a Turkey expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank, acknowledged the view inWashington that Erdogan was buying the S-400 for his own protection.
But he also pointed to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the possibility that Moscow can work with Ankara to thwart YPG Kurdish guerrillas in Syria. Turkey views the YPG as terrorists.
“I think, though, the bigger driver...(is that) Erdogan has realized that the U.S. will not help him in Syria against the YPG, and Putin will,” Cagaptay said. “In return, Putin has lured Turkey into lucrative deals and bargains, many of which undermine Turkey’s pro-Western orientation, the S-400 purchase being a case in point.”
Reporting by Phil Stewart; Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Alistair Bell
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has said the Islamic Republic helped an unnamed vessel that suffered a technical malfunction in the Strait of Hormuz amid U.S. concerns that Tehran seized an oil tanker from the United Arab Emirates in the area.
Abbas Mousavi, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, was quoted as saying in the state-run IRNA news agency early Wednesday that Iranian forces rushed to the aid on an unidentified tanker that had reportedly sent a distress call after a “technical glitch.”
He said tugboats towed it toward Iranian waters for repairs. Mousavi did not say what nation the ship was from, who owned it or its current status.
Iran’s statements come as both the U.S. and the U.A.E. said the vessel has not been in contact with its owner since its transponder turned off late Saturday night.
The MT Riah, a Panamanian-flagged oil tanker based in the U.A.E., was traveling through the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday night when its tracking system went dark. The 190-foot tanker stopped transmitting its location around 11 p.m. as tracking data showed its last position toward Iran.
“That is a red flag,” said Capt. Ranjith Raja of the data firm Refinitiv on Tuesday. He said the tanker had not switched off its tracker in three months of trips around the UAE.
The Strait of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and about 20 percent of the world’s oil passes through the narrow waterway.
An Emirati official contradicted Mousavi’s comments, telling the Associated Press on Tuesday that the MT Riah offered no distress call before switching off its tracker, adding that they “are monitoring the situation with our international partners.”
A U.S. defense official told The Associated Press that America "has suspicions" Iran seized the vessel amid tensions between Tehran and Washington over its unraveling nuclear deal with world powers.
“Could it have broken down or been toward for assistance? That’s a possibility,” an unidentified U.S. official told The Associated Press. “But the longer there is a period of no contact. It’s going to be a concern.”
Oil tankers previously have been targeted in the wider region amid tensions between the U.S. and Iran over its unraveling nuclear deal with world powers.
The ship's registered owner, Dubai-based Prime Tankers LLC, told the AP it had sold the ship to another company called Mouj Al-Bahar. A man who answered a telephone number registered to the firm told the AP it didn't own any ships. The Emirati official said the ship was "neither UAE owned nor operated" and carried no Emirati personnel, without elaborating.
Separately Tuesday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said his country will retaliate over the seizure of an Iranian supertanker carrying 2.1 million barrels of light crude oil. The vessel was seized with the help of British Royal Marines earlier this month off Gibraltar over suspicion it was heading to Syria in violation of European Union sanctions, an operation Khamenei called "piracy" in a televised speech.
"God willing, the Islamic Republic and its committed forces will not leave this evil without a response," he said. He did not elaborate.
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Saturday that Britain will facilitate the release of the ship if Iran can guarantee the vessel will not breach European sanctions on oil shipments to Syria.
Iran previously has threatened to stop oil tankers passing through the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all crude oil passes, if it cannot sell its own oil abroad.
Fox News' Louis Casiano and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Tensions with Iran remained high on Wednesday as mystery swirled around the whereabouts and status of an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf. CBS News senior national security correspondent David Martin says U.S. officials believe Iran has seized the small coastal tanker along with its crew of 25 people.
Iran has said it responded to a distress call from the Panamanian-flagged tanker MT Riah, based in the United Arab Emirates, and came to its rescue. But no other nation has reported receiving a distress call from the Riah, which was seen being escorted by Iranian naval vessels after the transponder that automatically reports its location was switched off on Saturday. At last report, the ship was anchored off Iran's Qeshm island, which hosts a number of bases belonging to the Islamic Republic's elite Revolutionary Guard force.
On Wednesday, Gen. Frank McKenzie visited the Maritime Security Center in the country of Oman, just outside the Persian Gulf. The center, run jointly by the U.S. and Oman, opened just last year. From the facility, the U.S. and its partners keep track of the more than 100 ships that traverse the Persian Gulf every day.
"I think this is a great example of partners in the region that are doing what they can to provide for freedom of navigation in the area," McKenzie told CBS News. "I think this is an excellent example of Oman doing the best they can with the capabilities they've got. We help them, they help us. It's an international effort and I think it's a great statement of what we need to be doing here in the region."
McKenzie is trying to set up an international flotilla of ships that would keep the vital maritime traffic in the Gulf safe from Iranian interference.
U.S. fears Iran seized UAE-based tanker in Strait of Hormuz
"It's really an international problem," the U.S. Marine Corps general told Martin. "It's not a United States problem -- although certainly the nations that immediately abut the Strait of Hormuz have a special responsibility to ensure freedom of navigation, of commerce that flows through for the world."
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow passage that serves as the gateway to the Persian Gulf. A third of the world's shipped oil supply passes through the strait every year, and any threat to that traffic can have a rapid and significant impact on global oil prices.
In the past two weeks, Iran has attempted to seize a British tanker, and apparently hijacked the smaller Riah -- although the Iranians claim they were merely helping a vessel in distress.
U.S. flexes military muscle near Iran after tanker attacks
The U.S. has overwhelming firepower in the area, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which is operating just outside the Persian Gulf. But the U.S. does not want to get into the business of escorting ships into and out of the Gulf.
President Trump has approved an operation in which U.S. warships would act as sentinels at the entrance to the Gulf -- as long as other countries that are more dependent on Middle East oi, agree to pick up 80 to 90 percent of the cost.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry has said that security forces recently came to the aid of a foreign oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, hours after reports that Iran might have seized a tanker from the United Arab Emirates in the area.
Abbas Mousavi, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that Iranian forces had rushed to the aid of an unidentified tanker that had sent a distress call after a “technical glitch,” according to reports Tuesday night from the semiofficial Iranian news agency Press TV. He said that tugboats had towed it toward Iranian waters for repairs.
Mr. Mousavi did not say what nation the ship was from, who owned it or what its current status was. He said more information would come later.
The comments came after reports that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran may have seized a United Arab Emirates tanker in the Persian Gulf over the weekend. Such a move would be the latest in a series of confrontations in the region that have raised fears of an armed conflict.
The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that an Emirati tanker with a Panama flag, the Riah, disappeared while passing through the Strait of Hormuz late Saturday. The report cited a United States defense official who said there were suspicions that the tanker had been seized by the Revolutionary Guards.
The Strait of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman, and 20 percent of the world’s oil passes through the narrow waterway. In recent weeks, it has been the site of several tense episodes that have increasingly strained the relationship between Iran and the United States.
Early this month, British forces seized an Iranian tanker near Gibraltar on suspicion that it was carrying oil to Syria, in violation of European Union sanctions. Iranian officials said the seizure occurred at the request of the United States, and warned of retaliatory action.
Video
A Times analysis of a video and images publicly released by the U.S. Defense Department indicates that an Iranian patrol boat removed an object from a tanker in the Gulf of Oman on June 13 that may have been a limpet mine.CreditCreditU.S. Dept. of Defense
British officials said last week that Iranian forces has tried to block a British tanker from passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian boats backed off after the British naval vessel issued “verbal warnings.”
Six tankers were damaged in May and June in the Gulf of Oman. The United States said the incidents were attacks by Iran, which Tehran has denied. Last month, Iran downed an American surveillance drone in the same area, a move that nearly resulted in military strikes by the United States.
Last year, President Trump pulled the United States from the 2015 agreement that limited Iran’s nuclear development in exchange for the easing of economic sanctions.
After the Trump administration announced new sanctions on Iran in May, Tehran set a deadline for the deal’s European signatories to come up with a strategy to ease the economic impact. Since that deadline expired, Iran has begun slowly reducing its compliance with the accord.
