Japan bus-jacker 'wanted to see parents'

©Reuters/Kyodo

A middle-aged man who allegedly hijacked a bus because he wanted to visit his parents was arrested in Japan, police said Monday, after he let the driver go to the toilet, AFP reports.

The local bus was travelling from an airport in Miyazaki, southwestern Japan, when Seiichi Sato, aged 45, allegedly took charge of it, threatening the driver and passengers with a pair of scissors, Jiji press reported.

"We received an emergency call at 10:00 pm Sunday from one of the passengers who said the bus had been hijacked," a spokesman for Miyazaki police told AFP.

Media reports suggested the bus made a number of stops to let passengers off, before pulling over at a convenience store some time before midnight.

After a stand-off that lasted more than an hour, officers swooped when Sato let the driver off the bus, ostensibly to go to the toilet, media reported.

Sato told police he had hijacked the bus "to see my foster parents in Ebino city", Fuji Television reported.

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