A packed train with a thousand coastal travelers was on its way from Ostend to Brussels on Sunday when the train suddenly slowed down at full speed and came to a halt between Merelbeke and Melle. There was a moment of panic on board, because the air conditioning also fell out due to the incident, so that it quickly became very hot in the fully packed wagons. That’s why the emergency services were called around 8.10 pm. They decided to evacuate the travelers. Fifteen minutes later, a team from the NMBS got the train up and running again. At 20.30 the train was able to continue its way towards Brussels.
Everything points to a willful act. “There are suspicions of vandalism on board, but we can’t say more about it yet. The investigation will show that. If that is the case and we can identify the perpetrators, we will of course recover the costs from them,” said NMBS spokesman Dimitri Temmerman.