{"id":53882,"date":"2015-07-01T01:04:17","date_gmt":"2015-06-30T17:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=53882"},"modified":"2015-09-20T15:26:00","modified_gmt":"2015-09-20T07:26:00","slug":"2-dead-after-man-sets-self-on-fire-on-japanese-bullet-train","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/07\/01\/2-dead-after-man-sets-self-on-fire-on-japanese-bullet-train\/","title":{"rendered":"2 dead after man sets self on fire on Japanese bullet train"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color:#fff;display:inline-block;font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#a7a7a7;font-size:11px;width:100%;max-width:594px;\">\n<div style=\"overflow:hidden;position:relative;height:0;padding:66.498316% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/479037738?et=WRxuBKtESHhE2qDW2CF4lg&#038;viewMoreLink=off&#038;sig=yGzbCzhJHOW4i14yDL9X1-1IryFNw3SadM_zHK_8jB0=&#038;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"395\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin:0;\">\n<div style=\"padding:0;margin:0 0 0 10px;text-align:left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/479037738\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\">View image<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\">gettyimages.com<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>ODAWARA, Japan \u2014 A man riding a Japanese high-speed bullet train set himself on fire Tuesday, killing himself and another passenger as the coach filled with smoke, a fire official said.<\/p>\n<p>At least 26 other people were injured, three seriously, mostly from smoke inhalation, Odawara Fire Department official Ikutaro Torii said.<\/p>\n<p>The man&#8217;s motive wasn&#8217;t clear.<\/p>\n<p>The passenger poured an oil-like substance over his head before setting himself on fire, authorities said. Kyodo News service reported that he used a lighter. Officials said the fire was at the front of the first car in the train, which was heading from Tokyo to Osaka.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I said to myself, &#8216;This is bad!'&#8221; said Takeo Inariyama, a 54-year-old businessman traveling in the second car. &#8220;I saw everyone running toward me and smoke coming. Also the smell (of smoke) filled the car. So I felt my life was in danger.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The train stopped on the outskirts of Odawara city, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Tokyo, when a passenger pressed an emergency button after finding someone collapsed on the floor near a restroom at the back of the first car, a transport ministry official said on condition of anonymity, citing department rules.<\/p>\n<p>The passenger on the floor, a woman, was later pronounced dead, reportedly from inhaling smoke.<\/p>\n<p>Crew members rushed to extinguish the fire, said Kengo Sasaoka, a spokesman for Central Japan Railway Co., which operates the bullet train between Tokyo and Osaka.<\/p>\n<p>TBS television broadcast a video of passengers evacuating the smoke-filled coach, some coughing, others covering their faces with towels and handkerchiefs.<\/p>\n<p>Witnesses provided somewhat varying accounts to Japanese networks.<\/p>\n<p>One passenger, in a telephone interview with TBS, said the man approached him when he was standing outside the driver&#8217;s compartment and told him to stay away because it would be dangerous, then poured an orange-colored liquid over himself.<\/p>\n<p>Public broadcaster NHK quoted a 58-year-old businessman as saying the man walked up and down the aisle a few times before returning with a plastic container that splashed a liquid on the businessman&#8217;s shoulder as he walked by.<\/p>\n<p>The man then started dumping the liquid on the floor, and the businessman quickly left as he smelled gasoline, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Bringing hazardous materials on public transportation is prohibited, but there is no way of checking, railway analyst Reizo Kawashima told NHK.<\/p>\n<p>Bullet train service between Tokyo and Osaka was suspended for about two and a half hours while rescue workers helped some of the injured off the train. The train then moved slowly to Odawara station, where about 1,000 passengers got off.<\/p>\n<p>The 16-car bullet train, called the Shinkansen in Japanese, travels the 553 kilometers (343 miles) between Tokyo and Osaka in 2 hours and 33 minutes.<\/p>\n<p><em>Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo. Associated Press writer Ken Moritsugu in Tokyo contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>View image | gettyimages.com ODAWARA, Japan \u2014 A man riding a Japanese high-speed bullet train set himself on fire Tuesday, &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":53943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news-w","mauthors-ken-aragaki","mauthors-mari-yamaguchi","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}