Tallinn's public transport operator, TLT, says minors, or anyone, playing dangerous games on trams risk serious injury or death.

The photo shows what appears to be a minor sitting on an external part of a tram which had halted at the Volta stop in North Tallinn.

Apparently sitting on the tram's front buffer, the youth would have likely not been visible to the driver.

Tarmo Lai, head of TLT's service division, told ERR incidents of this kind happen from time to time, spiking during the school vacations – this week is the half-term break for most schools.

"There is a period when these incidents don't happen at all, and a period when something is happening every day," he said, adding that cases tend to when children have too much free time on their hands.

Lai said TLT works with the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) and Tallinn's Municipal Police (Mupo) to address the issue; officers have visited schools in the Kopli area where the recent incident took place, to stress to schoolchildren the inherent danger in such acts.

While there have been no fatal accidents in the course of risk-taking acts involving public transport, Lai noted with a tram weighing 45-60 tonnes, the potential consequences of a slip are obvious.

"If you fall under there, the consequences will most likely resemble a genuinely horrifying horror film," Lai put it, noting the outcome would likely be far more severe than those from pranks or other misuse of e-scooters, another known area of concern.

A tram driver braking hard to avoid an incident could also put passengers at risk of injury, while the rapidly darkening mornings and afternoons at this time of year only serve to exacerbate the risk.

There have been several other reported incidents and one fatality involving Tallinn trams in recent months.

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