Two other passengers seriously injured and several treated for smoke inhalation after fire on board Shinkansen bullet train travelling from Tokyo to Osaka

Two people dead in Japan bullet train fire after man set himself alight

Two people have died in a fire aboard a moving Japanese bullet train on Tuesday, in the first fatal incident on the high-speed rail network in its 50-year history.

One man died apparently after setting fire to himself, and a woman was also found dead after being overcome by smoke.



Japanese media quoted a witness as saying the man, who has not been named, poured an oil-like substance over his head and set himself alight with a cigarette lighter about 30 minutes after the train, carrying 1,000 passengers, had left Tokyo en route to Osaka.

Reports said two other passengers in the same carriage were seriously injured and at least 20 others were treated for smoke inhalation.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Passengers receive treatment in Odawara, after smoke filled the carriage, forcing the train to stop. Photograph: AP

Aerial TV footage showed white smoke coming from the train and passengers holding handkerchiefs over their faces as they evacuated. One was holding a baby.

Public broadcaster NHK showed remaining passengers peering through the windows and open doors of the 16-carriage train after it made an emergency stop on the line between Shin Yokohama and Odawara stations about 70km (45 miles) south of Tokyo.

The incident, which occurred at around 11.30am local time, caused the cancellation of other bullet trains due to leave Tokyo at lunchtime. Central Japan Railway said it would be “some time” before services resumed.

The dead man, believed to be in his 30s, was reportedly sitting at the front of the first carriage behind the driver’s cabin when, without warning, he poured an unidentified liquid from a plastic container on his head and ignited it.

The injured woman, who has not been named, was found collapsed at the opposite end of the same carriage near the vestibule, prompting a passenger to push the emergency stop button.

Passengers quoted by Japanese media said they heard what sounded like an explosion coming from a nearby toilet moments earlier, according to NHK.

“We received information indicating that a fire broke out near a toilet and two people were in cardiopulmonary arrest,” a spokesman for Odawara fire department said shortly before the male passenger was pronounced dead.

“Other passengers were also injured,” he said, adding that two were in a serious condition.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Police officers investigate a Shinkansen bullet train after it made an emergency stop in Odawara. Photograph: KYODO/Reuters

Police said all of the injured among the 1,000 passengers on the train had been removed via the fourth carriage.

Three hours after the incident, the train slowly continued its journey to Odawara station, where TV crews crowded the platform trying to interview passengers.

Japan’s ultra-efficient shinkansen rail network connects cities along the length and breadth of the country.

The network has an enviable punctuality rate and an unparalleled safety record, with no one ever having been killed due to a derailment or collision since it went into service in 1964, just days before Tokyo hosted the summer Olympics.

The first service – called the Tokaido - connected Tokyo and the western city of Osaka, about 500km away.

An average of more than 400,000 passengers use the Tokaido service daily, travelling at speeds of up to 285km per hour, with more 300 trains running in both directions each day.

By the time the shinkansen marked its 50th anniversary last year, the Tokyo-Osaka line had carried a total of 5.6 billion passengers, with trains travelling a cumulative 2bn kilometres, enough to circle the globe 50,000 times.











