) Three people were confirmed dead following a seven-vehicle collision on an motorway in the Tokyo area early Tuesday morning, according to local media reports.
The collision, which involved four trucks and three passenger cars, occurred at about 7:30 a.m. local time (22:30 GMT Monday) on the southbound lanes of the Shuto Motorway’s Ikebukuro Route 5 in Saitama prefecture, just before the Bijogi Junction, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.
Several people were reported injured after multiple vehicles caught fire and were transported to nearby hospitals while firefighters deployed pump trucks to extinguish the flames engulfing the vehicles.
The deaths were later confirmed, according to the national news agency Kyodo, citing investigative sources.
Following the collision, a section of Ikebukuro Route 5 between Takashimadaira and Bijogi Junction has been closed to traffic, causing significant delays and detours amid work to clear the wreckage and investigate the exact cause of the accident.
