TOKYO: It`s usually a serene two-and-a-half-hour ride on Japan`s famously efficient bullet train. But the journey quickly descended into a zombie apocalypse, with passengers screaming in terror.

Organisers of Saturday`s adrenaline-filled trip, less than two weeks before Halloween, touted it as the `world`s first haunted house experience on a running Shinkansen`.

On board one chartered car of the Shinkansen the Japanese word for bullet train _were around 40 thrill-seekers, ready to brave an encounter with the living dead between Tokyo and the western metropolis of Osaka. All seemed normal at first as the bullet train made a peaceful departure on Saturday evening, but it wasn`t long until the first gory attack.

The victims actors planted in seats by the organisers jerked in agony and then underwent a terrifying transformation before starting a rampage against their fellow passengers.

`Like I was in the film` Sitting next to one of the actors was Joshua Payne, one of many foreign tourists on board.

`I literally felt like I was in the film, just sitting here watching it take place in front of me,` the 31-year-old American said.

`The fact that we can physically go from Tokyo to Osaka right now and have this whole performance at the same time... I think is really cool and maybe a little bit groundbreaking,` he said.

Toy chainsaws and guns were used as props, but depictions of extreme violence and gore that could tarnish the Shinkansen`s squeaky-clean reputation were avoided.

To counterbalance the subdued horror, the two-and-a-halfhour tour was peppered with light-hearted performances by zombie cheerleaders, magicians and comedians, including a choreographed dance to Michael Jackson`s Thriller.-AFP