At least 50 passengers on a packed commuter train in Japan have been taken to hospital after a gang of pickpockets sprayed teargas to escape undercover police.

The group of about seven thieves, some armed with knives, fled at a station.

BBC Tokyo Correspondent, Juliet Hindell reports

Passengers were treated for eye and throat complaints. Nobody was seriously hurt.

There was panic on the train with memories still fresh of the 1995 gassing on the Tokyo subway by the Aum Shinri Kyo doomsday cult, in which 12 people died.

Two plain-clothes investigators were on the train as part of daily anti-pickpocket surveillance when the teargas was sprayed.

One of the policeman was hit directly in the face by the spray.

The suspects then ran away after the train entered Ikebukuro station.

Passenger Shinya Morisaki said: "I heard someone yelling then there was a struggle. A moment later I smelled a stinking fume spreading inside the subway car."

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