The driver Masato Shibata, 26, was arrested on the spot on a street in Kanuma city in Tochigi prefecture north of Tokyo, a police spokesman said. The six children, aged nine to eleven, were pronounced dead at the scene by an emergency physician or at hospital, said the police spokesman.
"The cause of the accident has yet to be determined," he said, adding that the driver was not under the influence of alcohol. "The truck was on the north-bound lane, but crossed over the centre, hit the children and crashed into a building," he said, declining to comment further.
Witnesses told the Yomiuri Shimbun that the vehicle did not slow as it crashed into the children. Jiji Press said the driver was extremely agitated when questioned by police.
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