Japanese public broadcaster NHK reports on Tuesday that the demolition of Kyoto Animation’s Studio 1 building has been completed.
The demolition work was finished just three months before the first anniversary of the arson attack that engulfed the anime studio’s building, which took the lives of 36 people and injured 33 others.
The process of demolishing the arson-hit building started in November last year.
The lawyer for the anime studio has told NHK that the decision will be made with the former building site “after meeting and considering the viewpoints of the bereaved families and those involved with the local community.”
The anime studio previously suggested to build a memorial park on the location as a tribute to the victims of the attack, but some residents had opposed to the idea because the memorial park will attract large number of people and “will destroy the peaceful lifestyle [of local residents].”
Kyoto Animation’s first studio building, located in Uji City in Kyoto Prefecture, was engulfed in a devastating fire on July 18 last year, which took the lives of 36 people and severely injuring 33 others. The fire took about five hours before it was extinguished.
Local police said that there were about 74 people inside the building when the fire had started. They also said that out of the 36 people that died on the attack, 22 were women and 14 were men.
Kyoto Prefectural Police has apprehended a 41-year-old man, identified by witnesses as the suspect who allegedly threw gasoline inside the building. The suspect allegedly bought 40 liters of gasoline, which was then transported through a push-cart to the Kyoto Animation building.
The suspect has not yet been formally arrested by the police because of his continuing treatment in the hospital for his severe burns, but he is undergoing rehabilitation and able to communicate.
The Kyoto Prefectural Government is currently working on the distribution of the donations, which has a total of JP¥3,314,438,000 (over PHP1.5 billion), to the injured and families of the deceased.
The donation came from those collected through a GoFundMe page by North American anime licensor Sentai Filmworks and directly through a deposit account by the animation studio.
Additional Information from SoraNews 24
