At least 65 passengers suffered eye or throat pain Thursday morning when a gang of pickpockets sprayed tear gas in a Tokyo train to escape arrest, police and firefighters said.
A 19-year-old passenger was hospitalized, apparently poisoned by the gas, and a police officer suffered eye injuries after being sprayed directly in the face, they said.
A group of five men released the tear gas on a JR Saikyo Line train as it arrived at Ikebukuro Station in Tokyo's Toshima Ward, reportedly after two undercover officers observed a commotion in one of the cars and moved in to investigate.
The suspects, whom police alleged are South Korean, opened a train door by using the emergency door-opening system and fled when the motorman made an emergency stop. The incident occurred at around 10:15 a.m. as the train was on its way from Omiya Station in Saitama Prefecture to Shinjuku Station in Tokyo.
The plainclothes police had been on a stakeout before the incident occurred. After noticing the alarmed reaction of a female passenger, the officers moved in toward the five pickpockets, according to police. Some of the suspects had knives, police said.
Services on the Saikyo and JR Yamanote lines were halted for about 30 minutes because of the incident, causing 27 trains on both lines to be delayed. About 11,000 passengers were affected by the delay, according to JR East.
Mayumi Asanuma, an 18-year-old junior college student, said, "A man shouted, 'We are going to arrest you.' Then the train filled with something like mist. I had a sore throat. All the people coughed and shouted, 'Open the windows,' and 'Help.'" she said. "I saw people running away, elbowing through the passengers," she added.