The superintendent of a board of education in Otsu, Shiga prefecture was hospitalized Wednesday after he was attacked by a youth with a hammer, in the most extreme reaction yet to the town's mishandling of a bullying case that has shocked the nation.

The tragedy of a 13-year-old boy's suicide in October after he was the target of extreme bullying became a national media firestorm last month after it emerged that teachers allegedly turned a blind eye to the abuse and education officials downplayed it as a cause of the boy's death.

Since then, local officials have faced swelling public anger over what is seen to be institutionalized indifference to bullying in schools.

On Wednesday morning, a 19-year-old male college student entered the office of Kenji Sawamura, superintendent of the Otsu Municipal Board of Education, and hit him in the face with a 30-centimeter-long hammer before being tackled to the ground by other officials in the office.