BERLIN: A 65-year-old man thought to be sleeping while sitting upright on a Berlin underground train as it criss-crossed the German capital was actually dead.

The man was found at 5:45 a.m on Weinmeisterstrasse station, on the U-8 underground train line that runs all night. A rail worker tried wake him up by gently shaking him but medics pronounced him dead. It is not known how long he was on the train.