Human body parts were found in the damaged nose of a Shinkansen bullet train bound for Tokyo from Hakata on Thursday.
The driver of another Shinkansen on a different track noticed the damage on the first car of the 16-car Nozomi 176 at around 2:10 p.m., shortly after the Tokyo-bound train departed Kokura Station in Kitakyushu on the Sanyo Shinkansen line, according to the Shimonoseki police station of the Yamaguchi prefectural police, West Japan Railway Co. (JR West) and other sources.
An emergency inspection was conducted at the Shin-Shimonoseki Station in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, the next stop for Nozomi 176, and human body parts, including part of an upper body and an arm, were found inside a large crack on the nose. The sex of the body was unidentified. What appeared to be bloodstains also were found on the surface of the nose of the 700-series Nozomi train.
According to the Yahatanishi police station of the Fukuoka prefectural police, a JR West employee found what appeared to be clothing on the east side of a tunnel in Kitakyushu, between Hakata Station in Fukuoka and Kokura Station.
The police searched the area, suspecting that an accident had occurred around there, and found several human body parts on the track on the west side of the tunnel.
According to JR West, no inspection or maintenance work was being conducted on the track between Hakata and Kokura stations or in the tunnel around that time. It is possible that someone unrelated to JR West had entered the track or nearby areas.
The driver of the damaged Nozomi noticed an abnormal sound somewhere between Hakata Station and Kokura Station. But no inspection was conducted and the train continued running until it reached Shin-Shimonoseki Station.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
