Tokyo — A mobile battery briefly caught fire on a moving shinkansen bullet train in central Japan on Friday, but the blaze was swiftly extinguished and no injuries were reported, according to Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Central).
The incident occurred around 4:30 p.m. on a Tokaido Shinkansen train traveling from Tokyo to Osaka. A passenger had placed the battery in a seat pocket before it suddenly ignited. The passenger quickly alerted staff, who put out the fire without further problems.
Train services on the busy Tokaido Shinkansen Line were not disrupted. The train was between Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture and Toyohashi in Aichi Prefecture at the time of the fire.
The episode comes about a week after another fire incident on the same line, when a bullet train was forced to stop between Shiga and Gifu prefectures due to a blaze originating from equipment beneath a carriage floor. That case led to passenger evacuations and service delays.
JR Central is investigating the cause of the mobile battery fire while reminding passengers to handle electronic devices and rechargeable batteries with care when traveling.