A man dressed in a Joker costume and brandishing a knife stabbed at least one passenger on a Tokyo commuter train before starting a fire, injuring passengers and sending people scrambling to escape and jumping from windows, police and witnesses said.

The Tokyo Fire Department said 17 passengers were injured, including three seriously. Not all of them were stabbed and most of the other injuries were not serious, the fire department said.

The attacker, whom police identified as 24-year-old Kyota Hattori, was arrested on the spot after Sunday"s attack and was being investigated on suspicion of attempted murder, the Tokyo metropolitan police department said Monday.

The attacker, riding an express train headed to Tokyo"s Shinjuku station, abruptly took out a knife and stabbed a seated passenger - a man in his 70s - in the right chest, police said. Injury details of other 16 passengers are still being investigated, police said.

Police said he told authorities that he wanted to kill people and get the death penalty. Nippon Television said he also said that he used an earlier train stabbing case as an example.