A house in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, burned to the ground on Thursday morning, and the body found near its entrance belonged to someone who did not live there, police said. The five family members who live in the house were all confirmed safe.
The fire broke out around 10:40 a.m. on Thursday, destroying the two-story wooden house and one car. Only the frame of the house remains. A charred car was visible in front of the entrance in footage shot from above.
A neighbor said the fire began with an explosion. "I was in the house and noticed because of the explosion sound," the neighbor said. "It was quite big, a boom. When I went outside the car was burning, so I thought it might have been the car. I don't think it was the house's gas."
Another neighbor described a man on fire entering the property. "The grandmother who lives there said a man came in toward the entrance, toward the garden, with his body on fire," the neighbor said. "She said it was someone she had never seen."
The car was not the residents' either, and police believe an unidentified person drove it to the house. Officers are working to identify the body, whose sex has not been determined, and are investigating on the view that this person may have been involved in the fire.
What neighbors saw
Neighbors described flames spreading from the car to the house. "The car was burning, and the plants beside it were burning too," one said. "The house had caught fire as well."
Police have not said how the fire started or what connection, if any, the dead person had to the household. The five residents were confirmed unharmed.