Stray bullet shuts down automatic railway operations
Police have said an errant shot during a pheasant hunt could have caused a technical failure in railway operations.Officials in Fehring, Styria, said today (Mon) they had investigated the local railway lines guarded barriers after a breakdown over the weekend. They said a switchbox went out of order due to what seems to be a bullet from a hunting rifle.Authorities said the hunter probably did not notice that one of his shots hit the control box which automatically handles barriers at several railroad crossings on the track.Traffic at the affected crossings had to be directed manually by policemen on Saturday and Sunday. The defect was corrected this morning.Meanwhile, a Lower Austrian hunter sustained serious injuries when he was shot by another hunter in a hare hunt near Vorderweißenbach, Upper Austria, on Saturday.The 48-year-old man was hospitalised in Linz after being hit in the neck and the stomach.