Corpse left in suitcase at busy Tokyo station for a month

The corpse of a woman that had been stuffed in a suitcase and left in a locker at one of the world's busiest train stations went undiscovered for a month, Japanese police said Monday.

The suitcase was abandoned in a locker at Tokyo Station in late April, but removed to the left-luggage storage room after no-one collected it, media reported.

When a month had elapsed without its being claimed, the baggage storage company opened it.

"There was an abnormal odour when we opened the suitcase," a spokesman told reporters. "Then we saw hair."

The decomposing body belonged to a woman aged between around 70 and 90, who was about 140 centimetres (4 ft 7 ins) tall, police said.

She had been folded into the suitcase, which measured 70 centimetres by 50 centimetres, local media reported.

None of the people who worked in the office next to the baggage storage room had noticed any unpleasant smells, the Sponichi tabloid said.

Police said they had no leads on the woman's identity, but were investigating cause of death and examining CCTV footage from around the station.

Tokyo Station is one of the busiest in Japan, handling around 150 million passengers a year, operator JR East said.

It is the terminus for a number of shinkansen bullet train lines, and is the connection point for many suburban and subway routes.