A stationary train caused chaos on Friday evening in Ostend station. Thousands of day trippers were packed together. ‘There is little we can do about that as a city,’ says mayor Bart Tommelein (Open VLD).
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Packed together, drumming and even pushing and pulling, on Friday evening thousands of stranded day trippers tried to take a train at Ostend station. Travelers also tried to slip past the crush barriers by climbing over them and pushing them apart. The situation got so out of hand that the police finally decided to temporarily shut down train traffic so that the crowd could be dispersed first.
After two hours, train traffic was able to resume again. Images circulate on Twitter of how the day trippers play drums against the crush barriers, brace themselves when the police open part of the crush barrier and then sprint to the train, without respecting the distance rules.
On social media, travelers are upset about the irresponsible situation, which is an ideal breeding ground for the spread of the coronavirus. Virologist Marc Van Ranst also learned a lot: ‘Dear tourists, Ostend was a disaster today, both on the beach and in the station. You can forget about the coronavirus, but don’t forget about the coronavirus. In this way we are all back in our room with a complete lockdown on our bermuda shorts! Later, Van Ranst adapted that tweet to ‘It won’t work like this, friends’ and shared images of the chaos.
