Four workers hit and killed by train in Japan
The incident involving four workers took place at Shin-Kanuma Station north of Tokyo, the fire department said.
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TOKYO: Four people died in Japan on Thursday (Aug 20) after being hit by a train, authorities said, in a country renowned for its normally excellent rail safety record.
The incident involving four workers took place at Shin-Kanuma Station north of Tokyo, the fire department said.
"The four were confirmed dead," a fire department official told AFP.
Another official said that when emergency services arrived, three workers were trapped under the train, while one was on the platform.
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"Before being taken to hospital, all four of them were unconscious," he told AFP.
Kyodo News reported that the train was the Spacia X express on the Tobu Nikko Line, connecting Greater Tokyo with Nikko - a popular tourist destination.
"We heard this loud rumbling noise. Then the train came to an emergency stop with such sudden braking that it was impossible to stand," a 40-year-old man who was on the train told broadcaster NHK.
"There was an announcement saying 'we will stop to identify where the noise came from', and then we were left unable to get off for a while," the man was quoted as saying.
Emergency services were first called at 10.47am (9.47am, Singapore).
Nippon TV reported that the workers were removing weeds from around the train track.
Japanese railways have one of the best safety records in the world.
Fatal accidents from collisions or derailments are extremely rare due to high levels of maintenance and training, and use of advanced technology.
Japan's deadliest rail accident this century was in April 2005 when a rush-hour commuter train derailed and smashed into an apartment building in Amagasaki.
That tragedy in the Hyogo region of western Japan killed 107 people and injured more than 500 others.
Another accident involving a derailed cargo train and two passenger trains killed 161 people in 1963.
Famously, though, there has never been a passenger fatality from a derailment or a collision on Japan's network of "shinkansen" bullet trains since they entered service in 1964.
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