Bulgaria: Vandal Attacks on BDZ Trains Gain Currency

Since the beginning of the year there have been50 attacks on state railways‘ trains. In 13 of the incidents obstacles were placed on the rails. Three times as many are the attacks with stones on the railcars, coaches and train compositions.

Life threatening acts of vandalism are steadily increasing, as45 incidents were reported in 2018. In 2019, attackers hurled stones at 59 trains, and over 80 compositions were attacked in the past year.

"We have alerted the law enforcement authorities repeatedly, tried to persuade the relevant ministries to criminalize these acts. We have prepared texts that we will forward to the Minister of Transport so that they can become a legal fact", explained the Commercial Director of Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ) Konstantin Azov.