Five students, all aged 19, were confirmed dead early Thursday morning after they were found lying on the road, apparently having been thrown from a car that crashed into a bridge railing in Asuka, Nara Prefecture, police said.
The victims were all residents of Nara Prefecture. Three were male university students and two were women at a two-year college and vocational school. They were apparently friends from the same junior high school, the police said, adding that no alcohol was found in the car, which had a Nara license plate.
As there are no visible skid marks at the scene, police suspect driver error was the cause of the crash. The driver has yet to be identified.