A 38-year-old man has been hospitalised with serious injuries after being struck by a driverless metro train while allegedly painting graffiti in a tunnel in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat on Thursday evening. The incident forced a two-hour shutdown of services on two metro lines during the evening rush hour.
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The man accessed the tracks at Torrassa station around 6 p.m. and walked into the tunnel towards the next stop, Can Tries i Gornal. While in the tunnel, he was hit by an L10 south line train, according to initial reports from Catalan news outlet El Caso. In a remarkable turn of events, the injured artist was able to call the 112 emergency number himself to ask for help.
A Complex Rescue Operation
The L10 south, one of Barcelona’s automated metro lines, operates without a driver. This meant no one was on board to perform an emergency stop upon seeing a person on the tracks. After the train had passed, the man made the call that triggered a large-scale emergency response.
Four crews from the Bombers de la Generalitat (Catalan Fire Brigade), along with officers from the Mossos d’Esquadra, the Guàrdia Urbana of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, and two ambulances from the Sistema d’Emergències Mèdiques (SEM), were dispatched to the scene. Firefighters entered the metro system at the station entrance on Avinguda del Torrent Gornal and confirmed that power was cut to the line before proceeding into the tunnel.
They located the victim approximately 200 metres from the platform. Paramedics provided initial treatment inside the tunnel for significant injuries to his legs and hip. Firefighters then carefully secured him to a rigid board and carried him back to the surface, where he was stabilised and transported in serious condition to the Hospital Moisès Broggi in Sant Joan Despí. Medical sources have confirmed that despite the severity of his injuries, his life is not considered to be in danger.
Commuter Chaos and Public Warnings
The emergency operation had a significant impact on thousands of commuters. The operator, Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB), was forced to partially suspend service on both the L10 south and L9 lines. The disruption lasted for nearly two hours, from approximately 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., causing considerable delays during a peak travel period.
TMB regularly runs public awareness campaigns highlighting the extreme dangers of trespassing on metro tracks. Authorities warn not only of the obvious risk of being hit by a train but also of the lethal danger of electrocution from the high-voltage third rail. All stations are equipped with SOS telephones on the platforms for passengers to report fallen items, which TMB staff can then safely retrieve.
This incident underscores the ongoing issue of illegal graffiti in the city’s transport network. It comes as Barcelona continues to invest heavily in cleaning public spaces, with the city recently announcing a record year for graffiti removal. The debate over spaces for urban art also remains prominent, particularly after the council’s decision to end the legal graffiti walls at the iconic Tres Xemeneies in Poble-sec.
