Two women were fatally struck by a train on Thursday at a Sanyo Electric Railway crossing in Tarumi Ward of Kobe, a port city in Japan's Kansai region.
According to the police, before the accident, the two were seen standing facing south inside the crossing while the barriers were down. A Chinese passport was found near the scene, and the police are investigating the identities of the two individuals and their connection to the incident, the daily newspaper Kobe Shimbun reported.
The train driver said the pedestrians were obscured by a utility pole at the crossing, preventing him from seeing them in time. Their belongings included shopping bags from an outlet mall, Kansai TV reported.
The area near the scene has parallel tracks for both JR and Sanyo Electric Railway, and to the south of the crossing where the accident occurred, there is a national highway and a pedestrian crossing.
The police are investigating the possibility that the two were waiting for the signal inside the crossing by mistake for some reason and are looking into the circumstances at the time of the incident, the Kobe Shimbun reported.
Sanyo Electric Railway suspended operations for about 1 hour and 40 minutes between Kasumigaoka and San'yoakashi stations, affecting around 5,000 people. Additionally, a section of about 2 kilometers on National Route 2, a major highway nearby, was temporarily closed to traffic.
