THE operators of Luas have launched a probe after a photo emerged showing a half-naked man ‘scutting’ on the back of a busy Luas tram in Dublin yesterday just before rush hour.

The man caused a stir when he jumped onto the back of the tram as it was stopped at a traffic light on Middle Abbey Street in the city centre at around 4.30pm.

The man, who was using grips to hang onto the back of the tram, ignored the appeals of bystanders to come down.

One witness Andrew Holohan, who photographed the incident, told independent.ie: “I was walking along and I just saw this guy hanging off the back of it. He was just wearing his underwear even though it’s freezing at the moment.”

“He got onto the Luas while it was going, he had one leg up at one stage as the Luas was moving away.”

“I’d say he was there on the Luas for a good 45 seconds. He got down for a second, then when the Luas started to move again he got up on it again.”

“There were people telling him to get off, and I think when the Luas still wasn���t moving again he got spooked because I think he expected to be able to move along. So he just got down and he sprinted away.”

“A friend told me he’d been around for a few minutes before testing out his grips on the window of Arnotts," Mr Holohan said.

Transdev which operates the Luas said it is aware of the incident and it will be “fully investigating it”.

"It is illegal to trespass on a Luas track, and scutting of any sort is wrong. It jeopardises your own safety and the safety of others,” a spokesperson for Transdev said.

The man did not appear to be part of a larger group orchestrating a prank, Mr Holohan said.

“People just seemed to be a bit perplexed by him. There were five or six people around him just taking pictures.”

“It seems like it was kinda a joke or something, he didn’t seem to be there with anyone, I wondered if he was doing it for a joke, for college or something but no one around him seemed to recognise him or know him.”

“He was very strong looking, I thought maybe he could have been a climber who also happens to like doing this sort of thing.”

Scutting, which is the term used for someone holding onto a moving Luas tram, was also witnessed in Dublin last month when a young individual used a windcreen wiper to cling on to the rear of the tram.

The Luas can travel at speeds of up to 70km/h. Transdev previously said it was doing all it could to reduce scutting on trams, and appealed to the public to report any incidents that they may witness.

Online Editors