Tokyo subway sarin attack

On the morning of 20 March 1995, members of the Japanese religious group Aum Shinrikyo released the nerve agent sarin on five trains on three lines of the Tokyo subway during the rush hour, puncturing plastic bags of the liquid with sharpened umbrella tips. Thirteen people died and thousands were injured or sought treatment. The group was led by Shoko Asahara and had already used sarin in a smaller attack in Matsumoto the year before. Police raids followed, Asahara was arrested in May 1995, and he was sentenced to death in 2004 and executed in 2018 together with a number of other leaders. It was one of the first major uses of a chemical weapon by a terrorist organization in a modern city, and it led to security reforms in Japan.

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