About 350 people fled their homes in northern Japan today to escape poisonous fumes released by a neighbour who killed himself by mixing detergent and other chemicals - the latest in a series of such suicides.
The panic in Otaru came just hours after national police urged Internet providers to crack down on Web sites spurring a wave of detergent-related suicides in which 50 people have reportedly died in the past month.
The rash of such suicides in Japan - which already has one of the world's highest suicide rates - has triggered widespread concern because the powerful fumes can seriously harm bystanders and rescuers.
In Otaru, on the northern island of Hokkaido, a 24-year-old man mixed the chemicals in his house after midnight. He died and the gas - hydrogen sulfide - escaped his home, with neighbours alerted by the smell, a Hokkaido police official said.
The man's 58-year-old mother, who was apparently overcome by the fumes, was found unconscious nearby and was taken to a hospital. Police said she was recovering.
About 350 neighbours fled to a nearby school playground where they stayed for about two hours until the fumes dispersed, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.
Last week at least 90 people were sickened by fumes in southwestern Japan when a teenage girl killed herself by mixing laundry detergent with cleanser in her apartment.
Also today, police in Kori in northern Japan arrested a farmer for allegedly trying to kill his 82-year-old mother with the same gas by mixing toilet cleaner with mothballs in a bucket.
The farmer, Nobuya Matsuno, was mixing the chemicals on Wednesday when his 80-year-old father caught him and called police, a Fukushima prefecture police spokesman said, also on condition of anonymity because of policy.
Alarmed by the wave of detergent suicides, Japan's National Police Agency urged Internet providers Wednesday to delete materials from Web sites showing readers how to mix the chemicals, officials said. Some sites reportedly provide "poison gas" warnings that viewers can print out and hang outside their doors when they kill themselves.
Reports said more than 50 people have killed themselves by inhaling hydrogen sulfide in the past month.
