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29 March 2024

Woman survives after falling under subway train

Published
By AFP

A Czech woman beat the odds this week in the Prague underground when she fell under an oncoming train but then crawled out from between carriages unscathed, police said on Tuesday.

The young woman -- who appeared to be dozing on her feet -- fell off the platform into a deep groove between the subway rails, saving her from the impact of the undercarriage zooming by overhead.

"A video recording shows that the woman waiting for the underground could hardly keep her balance. She staggered and fell straight onto the tracks," police spokeswoman Eva Kropacova said in a statement on its website.

"Miraculously the woman stood up, dusted her trousers and walked off," she said, adding that the woman refused both medical treatment and a breathalyser test, telling police she was "merely tired".

The accident occurred early Monday. Black-and-white closed circuit surveillance footage can be seen on the website of the broadsheet DNES:

https://video.idnes.cz/?c=A130701_134859_praha-zpravy_sfo&idVideo=V130701_134232_tv-zpravy_nov.

The video shows a bystander springing forward to grab the woman, but failing by a whisker. She falls into the track just moments before the train rumbles through.

Afterwards a group of men kneel down and pull her out through the gap between the first and second carriages.

Other commuters have also cheated death in the Prague underground, according to Prague Transport Company spokesman Petr Vorlicek.

"There is a dip (between the rails), when you fall in there, the carriage is quite high above you so it won't hurt you," he told AFP.