Jakarta. The Directorate General of Railways at the Ministry of Transportation has launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the discovery of a snake on a commuter train in Jakarta on Tuesday (21/11).

"The discovery of a snake inside a railcar on the Bogor-Angke line caused passengers to panic, so the train had to stop at Manggarai Station [in Central Jakarta] ... to prevent a potential accident resulting from the panic," the directorate general said in a statement on Wednesday.

Spokeswoman Joice Hutajulu told the Jakarta Globe that the investigation is conducted in cooperation with Kereta Commuter Indonesia (KCI), a subsidiary of state-owned railway company Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI).

All commuter trains in the greater Jakarta area are operated by KCI.

Rumors have meanwhile emerged that a passenger may have brought the snake on the train inside an item of luggage, but this has yet to be confirmed.

A 2009 ministerial regulation on rail transit forbids any behavior that may disturb passengers or endanger their safety. The penalty for such a violation involves imprisonment for a maximum of three weeks.

A video of the incident, which was widely distributed on social media, including on the Instagram account @jktinfo, shows several people trying to remove the one-meter-long snake from a luggage rack inside the railcar.

A man finally manages to grab the reptile by the tail before smashing it on the floor, stomping on its head and tossing it through an open door onto the railway platform.

It is not yet know what type of snake it was and whether it was venomous.