Odors in Transit Stations Send 51 to Hospitals in Japan

At least 51 people were taken to hospitals today after complaining of stinging eyes and bad odors in train and subway stations in Yokohama, a crowded commercial port city adjacent to Tokyo.

No immediate cause was established for the smell, a police spokesman said. And there was no immediate indication that the incident was linked to last month’s sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, which killed 12 people and sickened 5,500.

“It does not appear that sarin is involved,” the police spokesman said of the Yokohama incident.

Nippon Television reported that a faulty air conditioner on a train that passed through the stations may have been responsible.

A white liquid was found in a corridor inside one station, Kyodo News Service said.

Defense Agency officials said a military poison gas warfare unit was being sent to the area.

NHK, Japan’s public television network, showed police in gas masks searching sections of the station.

It said there were no reports of people losing consciousness, and those hospitalized appeared lucid.

A passenger, Kisuke Anamo, told NHK that he suddenly felt a stinging feeling in his throat and then started coughing when he was walking in an underground passageway inside the station.

Other people also began coughing, he said.

“I still feel dizzy and sick,” he said.

A train where some passengers complained of illness was being inspected, but otherwise train service had resumed, officials said.

On March 20, unknown assailants released a nerve gas, sarin, on five subway trains in Tokyo during morning rush hour.

No one has been directly charged in that attack. A religious cult, Aum Supreme Truth, became the chief suspect after police found tons of dangerous chemicals at its facilities. Police said they also found signs that the cult was involved in research on biological and other weapons.

The cult has denied any involvement. Its leader, Shoko Asahara, had predicted that something terrible would happen in Tokyo last Saturday. Police mobilized more than 10,000 officers to guard downtown areas on that day and nothing untoward occurred.