A Japanese toddler who strayed onto railway tracks got away with scratches yesterday after a train ground to a halt on top of her, said police and rescuers.

The train driver spotted the girl standing on the tracks in Suzaka City, northwest of Tokyo, and applied its emergency brakes, the local police said. The train stopped with the girl beneath.

She was alive and trapped in the 50-centimetre (20-inch) gap between the train and the tracks, informed rescuers.

"It could have been a tragedy. It's a miracle that she survived this way," a rescue worker told the TV Asahi network.