A week has passed since a woman was crushed to death by a hotel elevator in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, and authorities are saying the case may require an extended investigation because of a lack of clues about why the car went up with the doors open.
Ishikawa Prefectural Police on Monday searched the Tokyo head office of Schindler Elevator K.K., a unit of Switzerland's Schindler Holdings Ltd., after earlier finding no evident damage or malfunction that could point to possible causes.
The government, meanwhile, may be compelled to take steps to avoid a recurrence of similar incidents in the face of investigators' difficulties in pinning down the cause.