Story highlights A brown snake forced a bullet train to make an emergency stop

The snake was quickly captured and was not poisonous

(CNN) An unlikely stowaway on a Japanese bullet train (shinkansen) forced the country's usually uber-punctual rail service to make an emergency stop Monday.

A female passenger glimpsed a brown snake wrapped around an armrest through the gap in the seats in front of her.

"We don't know how the snake got on the train, or if it was a wild or a pet snake," Haruhiko Tomikubo, a spokesperson for Japan Rail Central, told CNN.

A snake lays in a container after it was caught in bullet train, in Hamamatsu, central Japan.

"This isn't a normal occurrence either as you can't have pet snakes on trains."

The bullet train had left Tokyo for Hiroshima when the female passenger saw the snake. She immediately alerted the bullet train's conductor, who made an emergency stop at Hamamatsu city.

Read More