By Johannes Malinowski, Dirk Böttger and Michael Behrendt
Usually, underground trains rush through the tunnel between Moritzplatz and Kottbusser Tor at high speed. On the night of Monday there were passengers on the U8 – a 25-year-old ended up in the hospital after being electrocuted.
Around midnight, a U8 line had to stop between the Moritzplatz and Kottbusser Tor stations in Kreuzberg. The reason for this was a technical defect. According to the police, some of the passengers who were stuck did not want to wait for the journey to continue or for them to be accompanied by BVG employees to the Kottbusser Tor station.
They then pressed the emergency releases, stepped onto the track bed and made their way to the station themselves.
According to initial findings, the 25-year-old touched a conductor rail and was injured. He was treated by paramedics and transported to a hospital. Danger to life should not exist.
At the same time, a hundred officials arrived at the Kottbusser Tor train station and informed the passengers waiting for the train that they could not start the journey for the time being. There were no arrests.
There were riots at the Kottbusser Tor underground station on Monday night Photo: Spreepicture
BVG spokesman Nils Kremmin confirmed the incident to BZ. “We can only determine the exact reason why the train stopped after a technical check.”
It is life-threatening to leave the train on the open track without instructions from the staff. Mainly because of the electricity and trains running. Kremmin: “In this case it was absolutely unnecessary, since it was a train with a continuous passenger compartment and the first car had already pulled into the station.”
If there had really been imminent danger, one could have exited the train through the front doors onto the platform.