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30 January 2006
AMSTERDAM — Vandals tried to derail a high-speed ICE train near Oberhausen in Germany on Sunday evening.
The train, travelling from Amsterdam to Frankfurt, stayed on the tracks. But it was too badly damaged to continue on its journey. None of the 230 passengers were injured, the German police said on Monday.
The train, which was scheduled to leave the Dutch capital at 7.07pm, was passing Oberhausen at 130 kph when it hit a metal plate left on the tracks.
The driver managed to bring the train to a halt a few hundred metres further on, near a level crossing. The passengers had to exit the train by stepping down on to the tracks. Another train picked them up two hours later.
The police view the incident as attempted murder, but have no suspects. A spokesperson said this was not the first incident of this kind in the Ruhr area. A train hit four metal objects left on the tracks at Castrop-Rauxel in June 2004. An ICE train collided with a piece of metal at Kamen in April of that year.
[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2006]
Subject: Dutch news + German news