Austria
Fire in the Tyrolean railway tunnel: 33 slightly injured passengers
Rescue workers are on duty after the fire. 151 passengers were evacuated from the tunnel, serious injuries were not known for the time being. photo
© Zoom.Tirol/APA/dpa
A fire breaks out in the middle of an Austrian tunnel – a train gets stuck behind the fire. In a major rescue operation, 151 people have to be evacuated.
More than 30 train passengers were slightly injured in a fire in a railway tunnel in the Austrian state of Tyrol. As the control center of the emergency services announced during the night, a night train of the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) was affected, which was traveling from Innsbruck to Hamburg and Amsterdam.
151 people were evacuated from the train, as announced by the state of Tyrol. 33 of them were slightly injured and taken to hospitals with suspected smoke inhalation. Around 700 emergency services were deployed. According to the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB), damage to the overhead line caused the fire in the tunnel. The emergency services had previously assumed up to 370 passengers because of the seat reservations. The police had spoken of around 50 minor injuries.
The ORF broadcaster and the APA news agency reported that, according to emergency services, damage to the overhead line had caused a fire on cars that were being transported on a car wagon on the train. An overhead line fell on cars. The cars then caught fire. At that time, the train was passing through the Terfens railway tunnel near Fritzens.
Because of the fire, the train could not continue. At around 9:00 p.m., a major alarm went off. About 20 fire crews responded to extinguish the flames and rescue the passengers. Shortly after 11 p.m., all passengers had been evacuated.
All people who did not need medical care were taken to Innsbruck by bus, where sleeping facilities were also organized for all those affected. According to the information, the route in the tunnel is initially closed. The ÖBB tweeted: “The rescue chain and evacuation worked well.”