The snake lays in a container after it was caught inside train in Hamamatsu, central Japan.
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A stowaway on a
Japanese train forced the country's usually uber-punctual rail service to make
an emergency stop Monday.
A female passenger glimpsed a brown snake
wrapped around an armrest through the gap in the seats in front of her.
"We don't know how the snake got on the train,
or if it was a wild or a pet snake," Haruhiko Tomikubo, a spokesperson for
Japan Rail Central, told reporters.
"This isn't a normal occurrence either as
you can't have pet snakes on trains."
The bullet train had left Tokyo for Hiroshima
when the female passenger saw the snake. She immediately alerted the bullet
train's conductor, who made an emergency stop at Hamamatsu city.
The police were on hand to capture the snake,
which was around 1 foot (30 centimeters) long and believed to be non poisonous.
"We think that the operation went
smoothly," Tomikubo, told CNN. "The snake was caught within a minute,
and the bullet train arrived [in Hiroshima] without any delays."
While pet snakes are not allowed on board
Japanese bullet trains, cats and dogs are. Owners must pay an extra charge and
make sure they are kept in special pet boxes or cages so they don't disturb
other travelers.
This isn't the first time that a snake has
been found on bullet train, with a 3-foot-long (1 meter) Honduran milk snake
discovered in 2011.
"Five years ago, a snake was found on a
seat, but it was caught back then too," said Tomikubo.
"That time it was a pet."
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