TOKYO (TR) – Last week, a young woman sat down on a footbridge over the Tobu Tojo Line near Narimasu Station in Itabashi Ward during the morning rush hour for an extended period, causing the suspension of 43 train services in both directions and affecting approximately 16,000 people.
At around 5:20 a.m. on August 20, the driver of a local train heading outbound from Ikebukuro to Ogawamachi spotted a woman in the direction of travel and suspended service at Narimasu Station.
The company notified police, who then dispatched police and emergency services to deal with the situation, according to Tobu Railway’s Public Relations Department, reports J-cast News (Aug. 20).
The woman was sitting on one of several planks protruding from the outside of the footbridge. This plank is a feature of the footbridge designed to prevent objects from falling on the overhead wires.
Over the next hour, two police officers persuaded the woman to come down from the footbridge spanning the tracks above the railroad crossing.
Train passengers provided live coverage of the incident on X. Photos and videos showed emergency personnel placing mats on the tracks and also stringing up netting in preparation for an incident.
On X, user Gitaka (@GITAKATV) wrote, “Tojo Line services are suspended…I thought something was going on…Please stop…” Photos included in the post show two police officers reaching out their hands to the woman.
According to reports, in order to rescue the woman, power to the overhead lines on the Tojo Line was cut off. Passengers posted on X that the air conditioning in suspended trains had gone out and the carriages were as hot as a steam bath. Some lamented that the train was falling during rush hour and that they would not be able to make it to work.
During the rescue, two police officers pulled on the right and left hands of the woman, who was clearly reluctant to be rescued, to prevent her from falling. Finally, at around 6:30 a.m., another police officer pushed her upward while other officers and paramedics successfully pulled her onto the footbridge and rescued her.
According to Tobu Railway, operations on the Tojo Line resumed on all lines at 6:50 a.m.
When asked about this situation, Tobu Railway’s Public Relations Department said, “There is nothing we can say at this time.”
