Overview
- The large-scale exercise to simulate an ICE fire in the 1,320‑metre Sandberg tunnel took place on Saturday with more than 250 emergency personnel and about 100 extras acting as passengers.
- Observers and local reporting say the train driver rang the railway control at 10:15, the regional rescue control was told roughly 30 minutes later, fire brigades were alerted another 30 minutes after that, and first rescue units arrived at the north portal at about 12:22, roughly two hours and seven minutes after the initial alarm.
- The Thuringian Interior Ministry confirmed that several tunnel base units arrived significantly late and said an error analysis will follow while stressing that Ilm-Kreis organised and must evaluate the exercise.
- Public-warning systems also failed to perform as planned because messages sent through the NINA and KATWARN apps did not reach all users during the drill.
- Experts warned the delays would likely have cost lives in a real incident, and the failure highlights the need for clearer alarm procedures, better interagency coordination, and technical fixes on a key ICE corridor with many long tunnels.