TOKYO: Three men and a woman were found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in a car in Japan's latest suspected Internet suicide pact, police said yesterday.

The four a 39-year-old businessman, a 27-year-old unemployed man, a 25-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman were found in the car in Yabu in western Hyogo Prefecture on Sunday, a police spokesman said.

The police found burned charcoal and a suicide note in the car owned by the businessman.

"Their parents and relatives told investigators that the four people didn't know one another before," the spokesman said.

"We are looking into the case to see if they got to know one another through the Internet and decided to commit suicide," he said.

Just two weeks ago, Japanese police said they suspect group suicides claimed the lives of eight people in separate incidents across Japan.

Dozens of Japanese people have killed themselves since late last year after forming pacts on Internet suicide sites to support one another as they die.

They usually seal the windows of their cars and induce carbon monoxide poisoning by lighting charcoal burners, which are rarely used in modern Japan.

Japan has the highest suicide rate in the industrialized world, with 24.1 suicides per 100,000 people each year, according to the World Health Organization.

This year Japan announced a crackdown on Internet sites that spread information on group suicides.

Man kills father for money

In unrelated development, a drunken 39-year-old Japanese man strangled his father to death with a necktie after he refused to lend him 100 yen, or about 80 US cents, for his bus fare, police said yesterday.

Police arrested construction worker Hirokazu Tashiro on murder charges on Sunday in Ichihara, east of Tokyo, as he allegedly confessed to attacking his 67-year-old father Hiroshi, a local police spokesman said.

The son, who had been drinking, grew infuriated after realizing he was 100 yen short of pocket change to take a bus downtown, the police official said.

"I asked Dad to lend it to me," the son was quoted as telling police. "I was mad when he refused so I strangled him with my necktie."

He called the police after seeing his father collapse. The father was confirmed dead at hospital.

Source: China Daily