Hennef/Quadrath-Ichendorf (dpa/lnw) - Around the Christmas holidays, two trains were damaged and train journeys were canceled due to bulky objects that were apparently deliberately placed on the tracks. In both cases, the trains could not stop in time and ran into a shopping trolley and a bicycle, the federal police said in Cologne on Tuesday. It will be determined because of dangerous interference in rail traffic.
One day before Christmas Eve, strangers had thrown a shopping trolley onto the rails just outside the train station in Hennef (Rhein-Sieg district). The driver of an S-Bahn could not see the obstacle in the dark in time. Passengers were not injured in the collision. But the train was damaged and could not continue.
On Boxing Day, also in the evening, a bicycle was placed on the tracks just before the station in Quadrath-Ichendorf in Bergheim. The regional train caught the obstacle and then had to repair it. Travelers were unharmed.
The federal police emphasized that objects caught or thrown up can become life-threatening projectiles and cause serious injuries.
