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People walk carefully as they pass the snow-covered main intersection in Shibuya in Tokyo shortly before 11 p.m. on Jan. 23, 2012.(Mainichi)

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Snow fell in Tokyo and vicinity from Monday night through early Tuesday morning and covered the capital for the first time this season, causing people to slip and suffer injuries and disrupting rail and road traffic services.

As of 10 a.m., 53 people had been taken to hospital by ambulance in Tokyo, the Tokyo Fire Department said.

East Japan Railway Co. temporarily suspended some services on the Hachiko Line linking Hachioji in western Tokyo with the city of Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, as frozen wires failed to transmit electricity to trains at Hachioji Station.

Train services on the Togane Line in Chiba Prefecture came to a halt due to pantograph problems, while those on the Keiyo Line that links the Tokyo terminal station with the city of Chiba were suspended due to point troubles at a rail yard in Chiba.

Odakyu Electric Railway Co., a major railroad linking Tokyo's Shinjuku Station with the cities of Odawara and Fujisawa in Kanagawa Prefecture, suspended its ""Romancecar"" limited express train services between Shinjuku Station and the Hakone hot spring resort and the Enoshima seaside resort.

Road traffic was suspended temporarily in some parts of the capital's Metropolitan Expressway network and on a section between Kanagawa Prefecture and the Hachioji junction on the Chuo Expressway which links Tokyo with Nagoya via Nagano Prefecture.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said accumulated snow reached 6 centimeters in the city of Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, 5 cm in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, and 1 cm each in central Tokyo and Chiba as of 5 a.m. Tuesday.

It measured 4 cm in downtown Tokyo at one point late Monday evening.

The snowfall topped 2 meters at some locations on the Sea of Japan coast, such as in the town of Daisen, Tottori Prefecture, in western Japan, at the foot of 1,729-meter-high Mt. Daisen, where it reached 2.48 meters, more than twice the 30-year average through 2010.

The weather agency warns of more snow in the Sea of Japan coastal areas due to a persisting cold air mass.