Six people die as blizzards hit northern Japan

TOKYO: At least six people died in a spate of snow-related incidents as blizzards swept across the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido over the weekend, police and news reports said yesterday.
A 40-year-old woman and her three teenaged children were found dead late Saturday in a car buried under snow in the town of Nakashibetsu, eastern Hokkaido, a local police spokesman said.
They are believed to have died of carbon monoxide poisoning as the car’s exhaust pipe and was blocked by snow and the windows were up, Kyodo News said, adding that snowfalls of more than two meters (6.6 feet) were recorded in the area.
A 23-year-old woman who went missing in the same town was found dead on Sunday in snow some 300 meters away from her car, Jiji Press news agency said.
In Yubetsu, northwest of Nakashibetsu, a 53-year-old man was found dead on Sunday after he and his nine-year-old daughter became buried in snow on farmland, Jiji reported.
The two went missing after leaving their home Saturday in a truck. They were found outside in the snow and it appeared the father had placed his body over his daughter’s, Jiji reported.
He was pronounced dead in hospital, while the girl was found to have no life-threatening injuries.
Japan’s meteorological agency issued a warning of strong winds and heavy snow in northern Japan, with gusts of up to 135 km per hour recorded in Erimo cape, southern Hokkaido, on Saturday.
Meanwhile, a Japanese bullet train carrying about 130 passengers and crew derailed in heavy snow in northern Japan Saturday, although there were no reports of injuries, the rail operator said.
The first car of the “Komachi” No. 25 bullet train came off the rails on the Akita Shinkansen line in the city of Daisen, East Japan Railway Co. said, according to Kyodo news agency.
The six-carriage train was travelling at a drastically reduced speed of around 20 kilometres per hour due to the snow, when a number of wheels skipped off the track.
On hearing an abnormal noise the driver performed an emergency stop.
There were no reports of injuries or casualties following the derailing, just after 4:00 pm (0700 GMT).
Passengers were forced to wait on the stranded train for six hours while investigations were carried out, before a fleet of buses and taxis was ordered to take them to various destinations, Kyodo said.
The Japan Transport Safety Board said it would send officials to the site to investigate further, Kyodo reported.
The cause of the derailment has yet to be confirmed. A heavy snow warning was in place at the time of the accident, Kyodo quoted an unnamed local observatory as stating.
East Japan Railway Co., which operates the line, said on its website that bullet train services in the area had been suspended.