A motorway tunnel caved in 80 kilometres (50 miles) west of Tokyo on Sunday, trapping an unspecified number of vehicles, press reports said.
The incident occurred on the Tokyo-bound lanes inside the Sasago tunnel on the Chuo Expressway at around 8:00 am (2300 GMT Saturday), public broadcaster NHK and Jiji Press said.
An NHK reporter said the tunnel started to disintegrate when he was driving through it on his way to Tokyo.
“I managed to drive through the tunnel but vehicles nearby appeared to have been trapped,” he reported. “Black smoke was coming and there seemed to be a fire inside the tunnel.”
Japanese motorway tunnel caves in: reports
