Subway crashes through stop block; Hangs precariously off artwork 10-meters up

A bizarre accident happened in Spijkenisse early on Monday morning. A subway crashed through a stop block at De Akkers subway station and landed on a work of art, suspended around 10 meters off the ground. No one was injured.

The accident happened around 00:30 a.m. Emergency services responded en masse. De Akkers station is at the end of the route, so there were no passengers on board. The driver was unharmed and able to leave the vehicle under their own power. They were taken to hospital to be checked over as a precaution, a spokesperson for Rotterdam transport company RET said to NU.nl.

The vehicle is still hanging off the statue. It will take emergency services some time yet to recover the vehicle, a spokesperson for local security region Veiligheidsregio Rotterdam-Rijnmond said to the newspaper.

De Akker station is the end point for subway lines C from Cappelle aan den IJssel and D from Rotterdam. At the end of the track, an artwork called Waalvisstaarten by Maarten Struijs is located in a park. The work consists of two huge polyester whale tails. The subway landed on one of the tails.

The cause of the accident is under investigation. As it happened at the end of the subway track, RET expected that it would have no consequences for Monday's timetable.