A fare-evading passenger on Germany’s high-speed train clung to the outside of the train as it pulled out of the station before he was about to board, police said.

The 40-year-old man boarded an ICE train in Munich without a valid ticket and wanted to take a cigarette break at the station in Ingolstadt.

But he lingered on the cigarette for so long that the train doors closed, leaving him potentially trapped.

He then jumped onto a trestle between the two carriages and grabbed the cable as the train traveled towards Nuremberg at 282 km/h (175 mph) until federal police stopped the train about 30 kilometers away.

Witnesses alerted officials and contacted the train driver, who made an unplanned stop in Günding, Upper Bavaria. This intercity express train takes six hours to reach the northern city of Lübeck.

The man, who is Hungarian, told police he left his luggage on the train while smoking a cigarette and did not want to be separated from it.

A police spokesman said he was “surprisingly” uninjured after the risky ride.

“A state police officer who happened to be traveling with the train spotted the 40-year-old Hungarian ‘passenger’ and took him on board,” the spokesman said, adding that he was at Nuremberg Central Station.

The man is expected to face charges of “disturbing operational conduct”, which is only classified as an administrative offence.

Federal police have warned the public not to risk their lives by traveling on German trains.