Boy, 8, dies after being pushed in front of German train

An eight-year-old boy died yesterday when a man pushed him and his mother in front of a train in Germany’s Frankfurt railway station, police said.

The suspect, a 40-year-old man of African origin who was unrelated to the victims, ran off but was overpowered by passers-by and detained by police. The woman, also 40, was being treated in hospital after narrowly escaping from the tracks as an arriving ICE high speed train ran over her child.

Police said they had opened a murder inquiry and were questioning the suspect for a possible motive. “The boy and his mother were pushed in front of an arriving train,” said a police spokeswoman.

“The mother was able to save herself.” Passers-by ran after the fleeing man who, reports said, had tried but failed to push a third person onto the tracks, and who was arrested near the station, she added. The suspect is believed to be Eritrean, said Hesse state interior minister Peter Beuth.