Despite rescue efforts, the woman died at Voerde station, about 26 kilometres from Duisburg, where the incident occurred on Saturday afternoon.

The following day the Duisburg district court issued the 28-year-old suspect an arrest warrant for the murder of the woman, who was completely unknown to him.

The accused is said to have insidiously pushed the woman, who is from Voerde in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), into the tracks as an oncoming train arrived.

He acted purely “out of a desire for murder”, police and public prosecutor's office jointly announced on Sunday. 

A murder commission took over the investigation. The railway line was closed for several hours to secure evidence.

The perpetrators and victims did not know each other before the attack on Saturday morning, and the investigators also reported that there was no dispute between the two on the platform.

According to police, the suspect, who comes from Hamminkeln in the Wesel district, is already known to investigators there. 

Marie Fahlbusch of the public prosecutor's office in Duisburg told DPA on Sunday that the suspect had not yet commented on the accusation to the police or the magistrate.

The 28-year-old was held by witnesses until police arrived. 

Other incidents

Throughout Germany, similar cases repeatedly cause horror. In September 2018, an 18-year-old man pushed a 43-year-old on the train tracks in Cologne following a dispute, yet the victim did not sustain any injuries. The video captured by a surveillance camera showed the shocking crime.

In 2016, a 20-year-old woman died in Berlin after she was pushed in front of an oncoming U-Bahn train by a stranger in another tragic incident.

Also in Berlin in March 2019, an unknown perpetrator bumped into a 34-year-old man, pushing him into the track. In the process, the victim broke his neck vertebra.

Yet before the perpetrator fled, he pulled the victim back onto the platform.

To prevent future similar incidents, Berlin security expert Michael Kurs advised U-Bahn and S-Bahn commuters to “stay at least two metres away from the platform” and also to avoid distractions, such as looking at a mobile phone, as a train arrives.

“It’s also good to stand against a wall,” Kurs told BILD, “so that no one can stand behind you.”