Train passengers 'FOUR TIMES more likely to be hit by terror attack than fliers'

FEARS over terrorist attacks on public transport have grown after a shooting on a high-speed train from Amsterdam to Paris.

By Tom Parfitt

PUBLISHED: 00:00, Sat, Aug 22, 2015 | UPDATED: 05:35, Sat, Aug 22, 2015

GETTY FILE PICTURE

Terrorist attacks are more likely on trains than planes, experts have warned

Experts have warned that passengers are far more vulnerable to attacks on trains than aeroplanes.

There were four times as many malicious deaths on trains as on aircraft from 2002 to 2011, according to a study.

These included the horrific 7/7 bombings, which saw 39 people killed on the London Underground in 2005 – plus 13 others on a bus.

A year earlier 191 people died and more than 2,000 were injured after a series of blasts on Madrid's commuter train system.

And 209 were killed on Mumbai's busy Suburban Railway network in July 2006.

The study, by Professor Arnold Barnett, also found the risk per mile is 10 times higher for people travelling by train than by plane.

This risk has soared in recent years, with Prof Barnett pointing out there were no malicious deaths on trains between 1982 and 1991.

But officials have been slow to react, with the US spending nine times as much on plane security as it does on security for trains.

Yesterday's shooting in France, which saw a gunman opened fire before being overpowered by heroic passengers, has not yet been confirmed as a terrorist attack.

But counter-terrorism police took over the investigation after local police said they had not ruled out terrorism as a motive.

And the Bernard Cazeneuve, the Interior Minister, said the shooting could be "of a terrorist character".