Graffiti found on a Shinkansen bullet train carriage parked at a depot in Tokyo led to the suspension of the train's planned operation, affecting hundreds of passengers, railway officials said.

Police began investigating the case on suspicion of destruction of property.

According to railway officials, graffiti reading "Hack" in English was found on the side of a carriage of a Joetsu Shinkansen train parked at a train depot of East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) in Tokyo's Kita-ku at around 5 a.m. on Tuesday.

A driver who was inspecting trains at the depot found the graffiti and reported the incident to Takinogawa Police Station.

JR East suspended a train service on the Joetsu Shinkansen Line as it tried to erase the graffiti on the train that was to be used on the line, affecting about 500 passengers.

According to JR East, the graffiti -- which measured 1 by 4 to 5 meters -- was painted on the outside of the second carriage of the Shinkansen train in blue, red and white paint.

Officials suspect that someone painted the graffiti after 12:08 a.m., when the last train came into the depot on Tuesday.

Copyright 2005-2006 THE MAINICHI NEWSPAPERS. All rights reserved. Mainichi features the best news in Japan, current news in Japan, Japan news in English, Japan business news, Tokyo Japan news, and Japan entertainment news. Mainichi News is syndicated in accordance with editorial regulations: personal and noncommercial purposes.