Man rescued from under Red Line train

BOSTON (WHDH) -- A 27-year-old man was seriously injured after Boston firefighters extricated him from beneath a Red Line train at Downtown Crossing shortly after 1 p.m. Tuesday.

“He’s alive,” said Dep. Chief Richard Dibenedetto of the Boston Fire Department.

The victim’s hands were black with soot, but he was awake and talking to rescuers.

The man was not hit by the wheels of the train; he was found beneath the second car. Chief Dibenedetto said first responders had to find him beneath the train.

“To pinpoint where they are you actually have to get down in the pit and take a look,” said Dibenedetto.

The chief is not sure if the Braintree-bound train had to be lifted up.

Police blocked the access to the station and rescue crews had to wade through crowds of people at Downtown Crossing as they looked for an ambulance to bring the man to Massachusetts General Hospital.

It is not known how the man ended up on the tracks.

“Right now it’s all part of our investigation. We’re interviewing witnesses, we’ll also look at video to see if we can determine exactly what happened,” said Supt. Joseph O’Connor of the Transit Police Department.

Ramon Navarro was standing across the tracks. He took home video of investigators looking at the train as they tried to assess how to go about extricating the man.

“I heard a loud scream and pretty much the loud scream caught everybody’s attention and that’s when I recorded everything on my phone,” said Navarro.

The Red Line was shut down temporarily on Tuesday.