A pileup involving more than 50 vehicles has killed two people and injured 26 in a town in Gunma Prefecture, north of Tokyo.
The pileup occurred at around 7:30 p.m. on Friday on the Kan-etsu Expressway in the town of Minakami. A collision between two trucks triggered a chain of crashes with the vehicles behind them.
The site is on a straight section of road that follows a slight curve. Police say 57 vehicles were involved in the accident and more than 10 of them caught fire. The flames were extinguished about seven and a half hours later.
Police say there were two cases of someone being found dead in a car, one of them being a 77-year-old woman. Five of the 26 injured are seriously wounded.
A hey snow warning was in effect at the time, and snow was reportedly falling. Police believe the slippery road may he been a factor in the accident.
As of 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, the expressway was closed in both directions between the interchanges of Yuzawa in Niigata Prefecture and Tsukiyono in Gunma Prefecture.
Tow trucks he started removing vehicles that are no longer drivable. The work is expected to take time to complete, and it remains unclear when the expressway will be reopened.