Salvage operation under way to rescue train caught by whale sculpture

The train was empty at the time and the driver escaped unhurt, thanks to the whale tail’s unlikely catch

A salvaging crew prepares to attach chains to lift to a metro train carriage of the whale’s tail of a sculpture after it rammed through the end of an elevated section of rails with the driver escaping injuries in Spijkenisse, near Rotterdam, Netherlands. Picture: AP Photo/Peter Dejong

A salvage operation is under way to lift a runaway train off a sculpture of a whale’s tail, where it landed after ploughing through the end of an elevated section of track.

The train was left precariously balanced on the whale’s tail sculpture 10 metres above the ground on Monday, after plunging off the end of a metro line in Spijkenisse, a town on the southern edge of Rotterdam.