Man clings to outside of high-speed train after being caught out while smoking

In a hair-raising incident, a man who stepped out for a quick cigarette at Sankt Poelten station in Austria narrowly escaped death after he clung to the outside of a departing high-speed Railjet train. The trains are known for reaching speeds up to 230km/h, though it's not clear how fast the train was travelling when the man found himself in peril.

The daredevil smoker had been taking a cigarette break on the platform before the train set off and ended up grabbing onto the exterior. After making an emergency stop, the Austrian Railways crew managed to bring the man safely aboard. He had caught the attention of passengers and staff by banging on the windows, prompting the conductor to hit the emergency brake.

Austrian Railways spokesman Herbert Hofer commented on the ordeal: "It is irresponsible, this kind of thing usually ends up with someone dying.

"And you're not just putting yourself in danger, if you end up under the train there's rescuers, there's police, fire service that come," reported the Mirror.

The train was en route from Zurich, Switzerland to the Austrian capital. Despite departing on time from Sankt Poelten, it arrived in Vienna with a seven-minute delay, according to Mr Hofer.

Austrian tabloid Heute quoted a passenger onboard, reporting that a man had jumped into the gap between two carriages as the train departed from Sankt Poelten. The commuter revealed that the authorities were far from pleased with the man after rescuing him from the exterior of the train.

"The conductor really had a very big go at him," the passenger informed Heute. As per Heute's report, police escorted a 24-year-old man away upon the train's arrival at Vienna's Meidling station.

Regrettably, such incidents are not uncommon. Earlier in January, a 40-year-old Hungarian man survived a similar ordeal, clinging onto a German high-speed train for 20 miles.

Caught off guard by the train's departure while finishing a cigarette, he found himself in a dangerous predicament.

The passenger had boarded the ICE train in Munich without a valid ticket and intended to have a smoke break at the Ingolstadt station. However, he took too long, the doors closed, and he ended up clinging onto cables between two carriages as the train reached speeds of up to 175mph.

After the train was halted, the man told police that he had left his luggage onboard and didn't want to lose it. Miraculously, the reckless passenger escaped unscathed from the incident and was later handed over to federal police.