Woman arrested after attempting to douse Olympic torch with water pistol

A woman was arrested after she tried to put out the Olympic torch with a water pistol in protest of the games.

Kayoko Takahashi was arrested on Sunday after she aimed the water gun at the Olympic torch during a relay, Reuters reported.

The 53-year-old woman shouted “end to the Olympics” while shooting the water gun at the torch, but it had no effect and she was quickly stopped by security personnel, Vice reported.

The woman yelled that she wanted to “extinguish the torch fire.”

液体発射何かなって見たら、水鉄砲でオリンピック反対する女性でした。 pic.twitter.com/NQx9o4Ls9O

— ❥❥ ໒꒱ (@parieruchan) July 4, 2021

“You can’t shoot water at people for no good reason. She clearly wasn’t playing around—this isn’t child’s play,” Noriaki Nagatsuka, a deputy police chief in Mito, told VICE World News. 

She was arrested for “deliberately aiming at the runner and interfering with the relay,” Nagatsuka said.

Takahashi was protesting the Olympics being held due to low coronavirus vaccination rates in Japan and fear the games will accelerate cases in the country. 

The woman’s partner told Reuters that he did not know his girlfriend had plans to disrupt the relay with a water gun but confirmed that the couple was against holding the games.

Many in Japan are opposed to the Olympics being held this year, with hundreds of thousands of people previously signing a petition against holding the games.

There have been many attempts to put out the torch in the past but most have failed, according to The Guardian.