TOKYO (Reuters) - A 79-year-old woman slashed two women with a fruit knife near a crowded Tokyo railway station because she wanted police help after running away from a shelter for homeless people, police said on Saturday.

The victims, in their 20s, were only slightly injured in the attack on Friday night in a crowded shopping and entertainment district of the city. The elderly woman was arrested from the scene, a spokesman at the Shibuya police station said.

"I ran away from a shelter earlier this week and I don't have money. I thought if I caused an incident, the police would take care of me," the spokesman quoted the woman as telling investigators. She was carrying around 6,500 yen (32 pounds).

The incident was the latest in a string of such attacks that have unnerved the relatively crime-free country.

In June, a man who said he was tired of life went on a stabbing rampage in the crowded Tokyo shopping street of Akihabara, killing seven people and wounding a dozen others.