TOKYO, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Japan marked the 24th anniversary Wednesday of a deadly sarin nerve gas attack carried out by the Aum Shinrikyo cult on the Tokyo subway system that left 13 people dead and injured more than 6,000.
A vigil was held at Kasumigaseki subway station where one of the deadly attacks took place, with station officials observing a moment of silence at 8 a.m. local time, which was around the time the attack took place 24 years ago.
Families of the victims and station officials offered flowers at an altar set up inside Kasumigaseki station, the surrounding area of which is dominated by government ministries and other government-related offices.
Similar stands for flowers were set up at other stations where victims of the sarin attack lost their lives.
According to official police accounts, on Monday March 20, 1995, the members of the cult launched a coordinated chemical attack on the Tokyo subway, one of the world's busiest, at the peak of the morning rush hour.
Liquid sarin was placed in basic plastic bags and each attack team wrapped the bags in a layer of newspaper to conceal the deadly contents.
Most of the perpetrators carried two packets, each which contained around 900 milliliters of the deadly sarin.
The cult's initial plan was to release the sarin through aerosols to achieve a wider spread of the gas, but this plan failed.
Along with their deadly packets, the attack teams also carried umbrellas with their tips sharpened and boarded their trains.
At their respective station, the packets were dumped on the floor of the train and punctured repeatedly with the sharpened umbrellas.
Each perpetrator exited the train and the station at speed and was whisked away by a cult accomplice waiting in car.
The sarin, as well as spreading in the subway cars, also leaked onto the stations' platforms, quickly overcoming thousands.
People trying to help those dying from exposure to the nerve agent also became victims, as sarin is known to be the most volatile of all the nerve agents.
Shoko Asahara, the doomsday cult's leader, was arrested two months after the attack on the subway system.
Asahara, 63, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, and 12 of his disciples were executed in July last year for crimes committed including the Tokyo subway attack.
The cult leader was the first to be hanged among the AUM members that were on death row in Japan at the time for their roles in a number of fatal crimes carried out by the cult.
The group was also held responsible for an earlier sarin attack on June 27, 1994, in a parking lot near housing for judges in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, which killed eight people.
Asahara brainwashed his followers into believing he was the incarnation of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and regeneration.
He told them to give their lives and assets to Shiva and himself for as long as they lived, according to the prosecutors who indicted him.
Aum Shinrikyo renamed itself Aleph in January 2000 and in 2007 a senior Aum disciple and his followers left Aleph to launch a splinter group called Hikari no Wa (Circle of Rainbow Light).
With the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympic Games less than 500 days away from opening, the government is concerned that fundamentalist groups could again target Tokyo's busy subway system.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism earlier this month carried out tests to see if a body scanner installed at Kasumigaseki Station could detect potentially hazardous materials if a passenger attempts to secretly smuggle them onto trains.
The transport ministry hopes such screening machines will be one way in which potential acts of terrorism using nerve agents or other chemicals will be thwarted without disrupting the mass movement of passengers during the Olympics.
