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A 36-year-old Deutsche Bahn train conductor identified as Serkan C. died after being attacked during a ticket check on a regional train in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
The incident prompted calls from senior officials and rail unions for tougher penalties and stronger protections for public-facing workers.
German Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, a member of the Christian Social Union (CSU), called for harsher punishment after the death, saying violence against public service employees has been rising and requires “decisive consequences.”
He said legal protections for staff working in services such as railways should be strengthened, with wider sentencing ranges and significantly higher minimum penalties for attacks on workers.
Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) said she was horrified by the attack, noting that the killing of a person already requires severe penalties.
She said the ministry is cautious about additional criminal provisions, while pointing to ongoing work to increase penalties for attacks on emergency responders such as police and firefighters.
Police said the attack happened Monday evening on a regional train that had just departed Landstuhl station near Kaiserslautern.
Authorities said the suspect refused to show a ticket and was told to leave the train, after which he attacked the conductor.
Serkan C. collapsed after being struck. Passengers provided first aid and alerted police.
Officers arrived shortly afterward and attempted resuscitation, and emergency services treated him before he was taken to the hospital, where he later died.
The public prosecutor’s office in Zweibruecken said initial findings showed no weapon was used and that Serkan C. suffered severe head injuries from punches. A preliminary autopsy cited a brain hemorrhage caused by significant blunt force trauma to the head.
Police said the suspect is a 26-year-old Greek national. Saarland state police and federal police arrested him shortly after the attack.
Authorities described him as having no registered residence in Germany, while a prosecutor’s statement cited in reports said the suspect lives in Luxembourg and has no criminal record in Germany.
The suspect was reported to have refused to give a statement.
Reports described legal action against the suspect as including an arrest warrant on suspicion of attempted manslaughter, while other reporting said proceedings were initiated on suspicion of intentional killing.
Deutsche Bahn management board chair Evelyn Palla described the day as a “dark day,” condemning what she called senseless violence and expressing condolences to Serkan C.’s family, friends and colleagues.
Rail unions EVG and GDL strongly criticized the attack and called for a minute of silence. EVG chair Martin Burkert described the killing as a “new, terrible level of severity” and said a union survey of rail employees found 32% were afraid to go to work.
GDL chair Mario Reiss said the union has long warned of rising attacks on train staff, citing increasing disrespect, threats and physical violence, and criticized what he said were political debates that downplayed the situation or relied on measures that looked good on paper.
Deutsche Bahn employees observed a minute of silence at 3:00 p.m., including at major stations such as Berlin’s main station, where Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder and Deutsche Bahn staff took part.
Federal Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder called for more measures, saying staff must be protected and that trains and stations should be safe.
Rhineland-Palatinate Minister-President Alexander Schweitzer and Saarland Minister-President Anke Rehlinger said the violence against someone simply doing his job left them angry and saddened, describing the killing as a terrible expression of a long-running rise in aggression and violence toward train personnel.
Gordon Schnieder, identified in reports as the CDU’s lead candidate for the Rhineland-Palatinate state election, described the fatal attack as “an attack against us all,” saying he was stunned that a young man doing his job was brutally attacked.
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