Passengers of a German high-speed ICE train spent over six hours in a tunnel near Vienna before being freed. This was reported by DW, writes UNN.
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About 400 passengers, who remained in darkness and heat on an Intercity Express (ICE) train in a tunnel near Vienna, were freed after an evacuation that lasted over six hours.
The Deutsche Bahn high-speed train was traveling from the Austrian capital to the northern German city of Hamburg.
Less than 15 minutes after the start of the journey, the train stopped in the tunnel around 1:30 PM on Saturday due to a power outage.
Austrian media report that passengers were stuck in the heat for several hours after the air conditioning stopped due to a power outage. The lights were also partially off. With the help of about 100 rescuers, the operation to free the passengers from the tunnel took more than six hours.
The delay was partly due to passengers exiting into the tunnel.
As passengers were transferring to a replacement train in the tunnel, some people decided to walk, the railway operator reported. For safety reasons, the power in the tunnel had to be turned off again, which meant that the replacement train could not continue its journey. Instead, passengers were evacuated from the tunnel through emergency exits, which was completed around 8:00 PM.
Passengers were returned to Vienna by bus. According to the APA agency, two passengers received medical attention at the scene, but no one required hospitalization.
A spokesperson for the German railway operator Deutsche Bahn stated on Saturday evening that the train had a technical malfunction.