Four passengers, including a child, suffered burns and light injuries aboard a shinkansen bullet train in northeastern Japan on Monday after a chemical liquid belonging to a passenger leaked accidentally, local police said.
The owner of the liquid, who was among the injured on the Tohoku Shinkansen Line train, is a 40-year-old employee of a geological survey company based in Tokyo. The police believe the industrial chemical used in his profession was kept in a bottle in his hand luggage and accidentally spilled.
Passengers were evacuated from the train onto the platform of JR Sendai Station in Miyagi Prefecture, East Japan Railway Co. said, after a smoke-like haze was detected from one of the carriages during a crew inspection. The inspection was prompted by a rider's emergency call around noon about a child suffering burns from what seemed like a chemical substance.