Australian card game nerd is detained in Japan after having a psychotic episode

An Australian card game competitor has been detained in Japan after he hit a security guard in the face and tried to scale fence near Tokyo Tower during a psychotic episode. 

Alex Szponarski, 26, went to Tokyo, Japan, last month for a competition playing a card game called ‘Force of Will’ when his friends said he became erratic.

He threw his phone and wallet away after claiming authorities were monitoring him, which meant he couldn’t fly home on November 29, Perth Now reported.

Friend Floyd Holmes said he tried to get Mr Szponarski to hospital after he suddenly became reckless and aggressive. 

But the Perth man was arrested by Japanese police on December 2 after he allegedly hit a security guard while attempting to climb a fence near the famous communications tower in Tokyo. 

He has been in a holding cell at a police station ever since.

Mr Szponarski was in Japan for the card competition but his friends said he started being erratic 

His mother Beata Szponarski flew to Tokyo when she heard he was missing.

She was told he’d been arrested an hour before she landed, The Australian reported.

Mrs Szponarski was allowed to see her son a week later for less than half an hour.

‘Alex was babbling nonsense, he’s delusional.’

She also said he had no history of mental illness and his behaviour was out of character.

His mother Beata Szponarski said she is terrified her son has a brain injury that isn’t being treated

Mrs Szponarski claimed he had a cut on his head and was concerned he had a brain injury.

‘I’m petrified because he’s delusional, I’ve seen him twice now and he’s not my son. He’s talking out of sense,’ she said, according to Perth Now.

‘We are already two weeks behind when he could get medical help.’ 

Japanese authorities told the mother her son could be held for three weeks without being charged.