Train controller in Frankfurt. Credit line: Armando BABANI / AFP / Profimedia
A train conductor died on Wednesday after being hit by a passenger traveling without a ticket in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, the national railway company Deutsche Bahn announced, reports AFP.
The incident took place on Monday in Landstuhl, near the city of Kaiserslautern. The 36-year-old man was violently hit in the head by the passenger he was trying to get off the train after he caught him not having a ticket.
He died of his injuries on Wednesday, according to Deutsche Bahn.
According to German media, quoted by Daily Sabah, the controller, of Turkish origin, was attacked by a 26-year-old Greek citizen who was part of a group of four passengers traveling without valid tickets. The attacker punched the controller with such force that he collapsed to the floor and police officers, who arrived 10 minutes later, resuscitated him before emergency crews took over.
“This is a dark day for all railway workers in the country,” stressed the company's director, Evelyn Palla, denouncing the increasing number of acts of violence targeting staff.
The railway union EVG, for its part, demanded the presence of security personnel on board the trains.
The aggressor was detained and placed in preventive detention, the Prosecutor's Office informed.
