Heavy snow strands 430 people overnight on train in Japan

Passengers take shelter from a stranded train in Sanjo, Niigata prefecture, north of Tokyo, on Friday, January 12, 2018. A Japanese railway official said that about 430 people were stuck on the train overnight because of heavy snow that blanketed much of the country’s Japan Sea coast. (Suo Takekuma/Kyodo News via AP)

TOKYO – About 430 people were stuck on a train overnight due to heavy snow that blanketed much of the country’s Japan Sea coast, a Japanese railway official said.

The train only started moving around 10:30 a.m. on Friday, about 15 hours after it was forced to stop.

A spokesman for the Niigata branch of JR East Railway Company said the four-car train departed Niigata City at 4:25 p.m. on Thursday.

But as heavy snow accumulated, the train’s wheels could not turn anymore, and it stopped about 7 p.m., or almost three hours later, at a railway crossing.

Officials decided it was too risky to evacuate all the passengers because of the deep snow and darkness. The train, however, had electricity and heat. Five passengers who said they did not feel well were taken off.                      /kga