A man in Germany has died after being hit by a train arriving at Kottbusser Tor U-Bahn station in Kreuzberg, Berlin, at around midnight on Wednesday.

Dispute at Berlin subway station

According to the police, a dispute between two groups of people broke out at the Kottbusser Tor subway station late on Wednesday evening. In the resulting fracas, an Iranian man was apparently pushed in front of an arriving train. Emergency responders from the fire department tried to treat the man at the scene but he ultimately succumbed to his injuries.

Eyewitness reports differ to the exact circumstances, with some reporting a fight between “drug addicts” resulting in a man being accidently pushed onto the tracks. Others report that “two Mediterranean men” tried to rob a man in a wheelchair. Another man, who was accompanying the wheelchair user, tried to intervene and was attacked before being thrown onto the tracks. The suspect had fled the scene by the time police arrived.

Criminal investigation passed on to homicide team

The police questioned witnesses at the scene and are currently examining video footage of the incident. At first, they could not say whether incident was deliberate or not, but the investigation has since been passed on to a team from homicide. It was also confirmed that the deceased was travelling with the man in the wheelchair, who is apparently suffering from such severe shock he has not yet been able to give evidence. 

Following the incident, the train driver was taken into the care of pastors and the U-Bahn was temporarily interrupted, causing delays on the U8 line. The subway station in question, Kottbuser Tor, was judged last year to be Berlin’s second most dangerous after 199 injuries were recorded there in 2017.

Security at railway stations in Germany

This shocking incident is just the latest in a number of similar occurrences, which have raised questions about security on transportation in Germany.

In July, a boy died after being pushed in front of a train in Frankfurt. Just a week before that, a 34-year-old mother also lost her life after she was pushed onto the tracks at a station in the town of Voerde, North Rhine-Westphalia. Earlier this year, a 17-year-old girl was dragged by her hair onto the tracks by a woman at Berlin’s Alexanderplatz station. Fortunately, the teenager managed to save herself before the train arrived.

Similar incidents have arisen so often recently that some people have stated that such attacks do not surprise them anymore and have called for “round the clock police or security” at stations in Germany.