Two people were feared dead Tuesday after an apparent suicide attempt on board a moving shinkansen bullet train in Japan.

Two people were feared dead Tuesday and eight others injured after an apparent suicide attempt on board a moving shinkansen bullet train in Japan, a spokesman for the operator said.

"We have been informed that there was a passenger in a car on the train who covered him or herself with oil and set it on fire," said a JR Central spokesman.

The train - a super-fast Nozomi bullet train - was travelling from Tokyo towards Osaka when the fire broke out near Odawara, west of Tokyo.

"We received information indicating that a fire broke out near a toilet and two people were in cardiopulmonary arrest," a spokesman for Odawara Fire Department said.

"Other passengers were also injured," he said, without specifying the number.