In Yekaterinburg, frightened underage train surfers called the police themselves from aboard the train and turned themselves in.

      In Kamensk-Uralsky, transport police removed four underage train surfers from a freight train.

      According to the Transport Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Ural Federal District, on November 23 a call to the emergency number “02” was received from a teenager who said that he and his friends had climbed onto the walkway between cars of a freight train at the VIZ stopping point. According to him, the train was running without stops and in an unknown direction.

      The information was passed to the Interior Ministry department at Yekaterinburg-Passazhirsky station. There, transport police officers established that the train was already heading toward Kamensk-Uralsky. When the train stopped, railway police officers at Kamensk-Uralsky station removed the teenagers from the walkway and handed them over to inspectors from the juvenile affairs unit.

      It was determined that the four teenagers — born in 2008, 2011, 2012 and 2013 — had been inspired by online videos about train surfing and decided to ride on a freight train. They climbed onto the walkway between cars of the stationary train at the VIZ stop, hoping to get to the nearest station; however, the train continued without stopping. One of the participants, a 12-year-old boy, became frightened and called the police.

      Three of the boys, born between 2011 and 2013, attend the same school, and their older companion is a student at the city college. All the families are well-off and had no prior records.

      In the presence of the parents, juvenile affairs inspectors held a preventive talk with the children about the risks and consequences of train surfing and warned them that such actions are unacceptable. Parents were reminded of the need to monitor their children’s whereabouts and to explain safety rules to them.

      An administrative report was drawn up against the older teenager. Warnings were issued to the legal guardians of the other minors. Information about the incident was sent to the local commission on juvenile affairs.