Japanese Train Collides with 'Gom'... Passengers Trapped for 7 Hours

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A train collided with a bear in Hokkaido, Japan. The crew and passengers, unable to determine the bear's condition, had to endure a 'terrifying 7 hours' inside the train until the rescue team arrived.

According to local Japanese media 'UHB News' and others, the accident occurred around 11:25 p.m. local time on the 30th of last month in Furano City, Hokkaido, when a train collided with a brown bear.

The train was a single-car ordinary train on JR Nemuro Line, the main line in Hokkaido, traveling from Takikawa to Furano. At the time, there were five passengers and crew members on board.

Passengers disembarking from the train. [Image source=UHB News X (formerly Twitter) account capture]

Immediately after the collision with the bear, the train stopped operating. The crew needed to check if there was any damage to the train caused by the impact, but since they could not ascertain whether the bear was alive or dead, nor whether the bear had brought a group down with it, they could not risk going outside prematurely.

As a result, the crew and passengers on the train had to wait inside for about seven hours until safety was ensured.

The train remained stationary until around 6:30 a.m. the next day. Fortunately, daylight broke, and a rescue team accompanied by bear hunters arrived to inspect the train’s safety in case of any emergencies.

Brown bear inhabiting Hokkaido. [Image source=Sapporo-si]

The bear involved in the collision was found dead about 200 meters behind the train, and no other bears were found. The passengers were able to safely disembark and travel to Furano Station by taxi. There were no reported injuries.

Meanwhile, it is known that approximately 11,700 brown bears inhabit Hokkaido. Bears are generally cautious animals, so it is rare for them to come down into human residential areas, but occasionally incidents of bears appearing near cities do occur.

According to Japanese media such as the Asahi Shimbun, from April to September, there were 161 bear sightings in Sapporo City, Hokkaido, which is about twice the number compared to the same period 10 years ago (83 cases).

In March last year, two men were seriously injured in an attack by a brown bear in the mountains.

The brown bear population in Hokkaido has steadily increased over the past several decades because the Japanese government has prohibited bear hunting to prevent population decline. However, as damage caused by bear appearances has gradually increased recently, local governments have been increasingly requesting hunters to cull bears.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.