Vienna. According to the AKH, an 18-year-old is still in critical condition after an accident in Vienna-Hietzing near the U4 Schönbrunn station. The Czech was riding on the roof of a train with three friends on Tuesday afternoon and crashed into a pedestrian overpass over the track in the entrance area towards Karlsplatz. A 17-year-old compatriot of his was also taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries. He is also in a "critical condition", the Meidling Accident Hospital (AUVA Trauma Center) announced on Wednesday afternoon.

According to Wiener Linien, the reckless, illegal and completely crazy action of the quartet began shortly after 4 p.m., when the boys, aged between 13 and 18, climbed onto the roof of the subway coming from Hütteldorf and "surfed along". Two of them - the visitors from the Czech Republic - then hit a pedestrian bridge as they entered Schönbrunn station and sustained life-threatening injuries.

The professional rescue service and the Samaritan Association took the two men to hospital. A third "surfer" (a 16-year-old Viennese) escaped with minor injuries, the fourth, who is only 13, was unharmed. The two young locals ran away at first, but returned to the scene of the accident a short time later.

The exact course of events will now be analyzed together with the police using video analysis, Wiener Linien announced immediately afterwards. In this context, it was pointed out that such actions and tests of courage - several sources reported that the subway surfers had streamed their Schönbrunn ride live online - always involve a risk to life.

As if it were a warning, the last video stream of the four surfers is currently going viral: You can see the two partially masked Czechs first crossing a tunnel very flat on the roof and then driving above ground along the Vienna River towards Schönbrunn. Incomprehensibly, the two stand up shortly before entering the station, and you can only hear the filmmaker and a fourth guy shouting "down! down! down!", but by then it is already too late...