An Egyptian teenager, pressed for papers, jumped to his death from a moving train

REUTERS/Alexandros Avramidis

BERLIN (Reuters) - An Egyptian teenager, discovered hiding beneath a bench on a German night train, jumped out of a window and died after officials asked to see his papers, German police said on Friday.

The 17-year-old man handed the officials migration documents, issued in Austria and identifying him as an Egyptian national, during checks on a night train early on Friday morning near the German-Austrian border.

While police were looking at his papers, the young man escaped into another compartment, opened the window and jumped out of the moving train, two young American women who witnessed the incident told the police.

Police closed the tracks and discovered the body.

Federal police had registered the man on the German-Austrian border a few weeks ago and sent him back to Austria, a Munich police spokesman said.

Germany, which took in more than one million migrants last year, is the preferred destination for many people escaping war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond.

Over 1.5 million migrants have entered Europe in 2015, unleashing fierce political debate across the continent over how to handle the crisis.

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