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The burning locomotive in the Berchtesgadener Land
Photo: Markus Leitner / dpa
Burning and without a driver, a locomotive drove through the Berchtesgadener Land district and caused rescue workers to be deployed for several hours.
As the Bavarian Red Cross (BRK) announced, no people were injured.
According to Deutsche Bahn, the Munich-Freilassing railway line had to be closed for several hours.
The burning locomotive was reported on Friday night.
Fire brigades, federal police, train and BRK Berchtesgadener Land were alerted and moved in with 80 helpers, as reported by Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR).
Before the emergency services could start the extinguishing work, the unmanned locomotive started rolling on the slightly sloping tracks in the direction of Freilassing station.
The train was no longer occupied at this point.
According to the BRK, the “ghost locomotive” picked up “high speed”.
The railway employee was able to steer the burning train to a siding east of Freilassing station by setting the points.
There the locomotive could first be braked by a buffer and partially derailed.
Locomotive difficult to reach
According to the BR report, the fire brigade initially found it difficult to reach the locomotive due to high noise protection walls on both sides.
After that succeeded and the overhead line was switched off, it took an hour for the fire to be extinguished.
Nothing is known about the cause of the fire.
dam/dpa
