Japanese officials have confirmed that a man set himself on
fire on a bullet train bound for the western city of Osaka from Tokyo. Two
people are feared dead.
According to local media,
a man poured an oil-like liquid over his head and attempted self-immolation.
"We have been
informed that there was a passenger in a car on the train who covered him or
herself with oil and set it on fire," a spokesman for the train
operator, JR Central, told AFP.
The fire department of
Odawara in the Kanagawa Prefecture said that the man and a female passenger
died on the train, while two other people were injured, the Japan Times
reports.
"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.
"Other passengers
were also injured," he said, without specifying how many.
Television footage showed
people being evacuated from the train, which stopped in a residential area.
Several people were carried out of the train on stretchers.
Bullet trains, called
Shinkansen, travel at a speed of up to 320km/h and have been widely
regarded as a safe way of traveling. Many thousands of Japanese people use them
for commuting daily.
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