German police stated that a passenger who was traveling without a valid ticket on a high-speed train in Germany jumped onto the space between two carriages as the train was leaving the station, clinging to the outside of the carriage even at a speed of up to 282 kilometers per hour. Fortunately, he did not get injured. The man was eventually arrested by the police and now faces charges of disrupting train operations.
According to reports from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the 40-year-old Hungarian man boarded a high-speed train bound for the northern city of Lübeck from Munich without a valid ticket.
When the train made a stop in Ingolstadt, the man got off to smoke a cigarette, but he took too long, and by the time he tried to board again, the doors were already closed.
Seeing the train starting to leave the station, the man took a bold leap onto the space between two carriages. For the next 20 miles (32 kilometers), he held onto the cables tightly. It wasn’t until bystanders noticed him outside the carriage and alerted the authorities that the train was stopped.
The train was traveling at a speed of 282 kilometers per hour. Upon learning about the man’s situation, the train driver decided to make an emergency stop in Kinding in the Bavarian region.
The man told the police that he left his luggage on the train when he got off to smoke. Not wanting to lose his belongings, he took the risky move of jumping back onto the moving train.
A police spokesperson mentioned that his daring act did not result in any injuries, which was surprising.
The spokesperson further stated that there happened to be a police officer on the train who arrested the man and later handed him over to the federal police in Nuremberg.
The man is expected to face charges of “disruptive behavior”, a crime classified as administrative offense.
Federal police warned the public not to engage in life-threatening acts on German trains.
A similar incident occurred in 2017, where a 59-year-old man clung to the outside of a train carriage for 15 miles (24 kilometers) on a train traveling from Hannover to Bielefeld and miraculously survived.