On Sunday morning, two Slovak youths were hit by a regional train in the city of Schladming in central Austria. the local police confirmed according to the APA agency. The Communications Department of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (MZVEZ) of the Slovak Republic stated for TASR that Austria has not yet officially informed the Slovak authorities about this incident.
Austrian police said that one of the young men suffered a life-threatening head injury and was taken by helicopter to a hospital in the city of Klagenfurt am Wörthersee. The other was conscious but suffered a broken shoulder. According to him, they did not know the area and at the time of the accident their mobile phones did not work, so they decided to follow the tracks. He added that they did not see or hear the train coming.
The incident occurred in the early hours of the morning, probably around 6:30 a.m. CEST, when the young men were returning to their hotel. The train hit them from behind. “The international operational crisis center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic and the Representative Office of the Slovak Republic in Vienna have not yet been officially informed by the Austrian police about this tragic event. Likewise, no citizen of the Slovak Republic has contacted the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Vienna in this matter so far,” confirmed the communication department of the Slovak Department of Diplomacy.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic and the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Vienna are closely monitoring the situation and are ready to provide Slovak citizens with the necessary cooperation if they request it.” the ministry added in a statement to TASR.
