German train refuses to stop to let mother rescue stranded tot
German trains may be praised for trying to be punctual - but perhaps sometimes the determination to run on time goes too far.
That's certainly what Ulrike Kracht felt this weekend, after she was separated from her two-year-old when her train's automatic doors closed on her before she had time to get her baby off.
Despite her panicked pleas, officials at Pritzwalk station refused her request to stop the express train - because it would delay it.
This meant that little Marie Luise Kracht, two, had to sit alone for an hour as the train sped through the countryside of Brandenburg, near Berlin.
Ulrike, 19, said she pleaded with Deutsche Bahn staff to somehow stop the train after its automatic doors closed at a station.
She had been unloading her possessions and pushchair before returning for Marie Luise when her way was blocked and the train began pulling away. She claims that the doors shut much more quickly than usual, leaving her panic-stricken.
'I was getting my things out of the station at the stop when the doors suddenly closed with my daughter inside,' she said, speaking in the Daily Telegraph. 'It was the worst moment of my life. I heard Marie Luise shout "mama" and she was gone!'
The mum said that two German railway employees banged frantically on the doors to try to get them open but without success.
But when she asked to radio ahead to stop the train, she says she was told: 'We can't do that. It must run on schedule.' Later a railway spokeswoman said: 'There was no train coming back in the other direction anyway because of a strike..'
The child was alone for an hour until the train halted in Neurippin, hotly pursued by a police car with her mother inside. The car gave chase to the train in a touch-and-go bid to get to the next station and rescue Marie Luise before it left the station again.
"I was all right until I saw her and then the tears came and she started crying then too,' said Ulrike.
Deutsche Bahn has promised an inquiry.
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