A man in Germany has been caught travelling on the exterior of a regional train that was travelling 100 kilometres per hour. Once he was caught he told police that he had travelled on the outside step because he had forgotten his face mask.

Man rides exterior of train running at 100 km/h

A man in North Rhine-Westphalia has been caught by police after he rode the exterior of a train that was travelling at 100 km/h. The man, who jumped on the train in Leverkusen, a German city on the banks of the Rhine River, stood on an outside step of the train and held on until he was discovered by passengers looking out of the window.

The long-distance train had travelled about one kilometre from the Leverkusen district of Opladen before the man was spotted and the train engineer initiated the locomotive to come to a halt.

Train hitchhiker forgot FFP2 face mask

Once the 36-year-old hitchhiker had been discovered, two people who were working for the train company caught the man and detained him. When the police arrived at the scene he told them that he had taken the decision to ride on the outside step of the train because he had forgotten his face mask. Though face masks requirements have been removed in parts of Germany they are still obligatory on long-distance trains.

After someone called the emergency services it came to light that the man was known to them for previous theft offences and resisting arrest. His claim that he had decided to hop on the outside of the fast-moving train because he had forgotten his mask was based on his own strange logic: that as a wanted criminal he would draw attention to himself on the train, where everyone else would be wearing a mask.