TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A female student suspected of injuring eight others in a hammer attack on a university campus in suburban Tokyo said she had been bullied and felt belittled, police said Saturday.

The suspect, Yoo Ju Hyun, who holds South Korean nationality and came to Japan to study, was arrested after allegedly attacking students at Hosei University's Tama Campus in Machida on Friday.

Police said the 22-year-old had been seated near the front of a classroom but moved to the back before beginning the assault about 10 minutes into the class, around 3:40 p.m. Earlier in the day, she found a hammer in another classroom and concealed it in her coat pocket.

"I was bullied on a regular basis and thought I was being looked down on," she was quoted by the police as saying. "I thought that the only way to stop the bullying, the only solution, was to attack the students who were in the same class."

All eight victims of the assault were students in their teens and 20s, with seven suffering head injuries.

Among the eight injured were individuals unacquainted with the assailant, a second-year undergraduate who enrolled at the university in April 2023.

The hammer used in the attack had a wooden handle around 30 centimeters long, with a metal head measuring about 10.5 centimeters. It weighed approximately 360 grams, according to the police.

Yoo was initially seated in the third row during a Japanese economic theory class attended by about 150 people.

She then moved to the rear of the room, attacking five male and female students, including striking some on the back of the head, before assaulting three others. The suspect was apprehended by staff as she attempted to return to the front of the classroom.