DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A look back at one of the many stories that CNN has covered in the past 20 years: today, poison gas released on a Tokyo subway.</s>JOE OLIVER, CNN ANCHOR: This breaking story, in Tokyo, more than 200 commuters were overcome by toxic fumes in the city's massive subway system. It happened during Tokyo's busiest Monday morning rush hour. Our Tokyo correspondent May Lee joins us by telephone to bring us more details. May Lee?</s>MAY LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Joe, about 8:20 this morning at the height of the commuting hour, there were some packages found on several different trains, wrapped up in vinyl and apparently they were filled with some kind of toxic chemical, and they began to release very toxic fumes. About 200 people have already been taken to the hospital, 10 people are in critical condition, unconscious, and they have been overcome by these fumes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Toxic fumes later identified by police as the highly lethal nerve gas sarin was found wrapped in small packages on at least five subway cars. The government, which was heavily criticized for its slow reaction time and inefficiency after the Kobe earthquake, acted swiftly in the wake of this toxic disaster. Self-defense forces specializing in chemical warfare were called in to neutralize the sarin, as emergency crews rushed people by the hundreds to area hospitals.</s>BOBBIE BATTISTA, CNN ANCHOR: Japanese police have raided a complex occupied by a Buddhist cult. Wednesday's raids at two dozen sites turned up chemical solvents used to make the kind of poison gas that killed 10 people in the Japanese subway system, and made thousands ill
CNN 20: Poison Gas Released in Tokyo Subway, March 20, 1995