Man survives after clinging to high-speed Austrian train after getting off to have a cigarette

The Guardian

21 hours ago

A man has survived clinging to the outside of a high-speed train in Austria, the state railway said, after it reportedly left while he was having a cigarette break.
The man grabbed on to the outside of the train at St Poelten, west of Vienna, late on Saturday, said Austrian railways spokesperson Herbert Hofer, and was later taken onboard after the train performed an emergency stop.
'It is irresponsible, this kind of thing usually ends up with someone dying,' Hofer said.
'And you're not just putting yourself in danger, if you end up under the train there's rescuers, there's police, fire service that come.'
The railjet train was on its way from Zurich in Switzerland to the Austrian capital and left Sankt Poelten on time but arrived in Vienna with a seven-minute delay, Hofer said.
Railjet trains have a maximum speed of 230kph, but it is not known what speed the train was moving at while the man was clinging on.
Citing a passenger onboard, Austrian tabloid Heute said the man jumped into the space between two carriages after the train began to set off from a planned stop in Sankt Poelten.
The man had taken advantage of being at a station to smoke a cigarette on the platform, Heute said.
The man soon began to bang on windows to attract attention, he said, resulting in the train's conductor activating the emergency brake before train crew took the man aboard.
'The conductor really had a very big go at him,' the passenger told Heute.
The man, a 24-year-old Algerian, was led away by police after the train arrived in Vienna's Meidling station, Heute said. He could not comment on the man's background ahead of further investigations, he said.
In January, a 40-year-old Hungarian man survived clinging to a German high-speed train for 32km, likewise after it set off before he had finished a cigarette.