Man risks his life by hitching on the back of 110km/hr train in western Australia

A man in Perth, western Australia went to extremes to avoid paying his train fare.

Passers-by watched in shock as they saw the 23-year-old clinging to the back of a train before it left Leederville Station at around 4.30pm on Saturday (23 September).

The train got up to speeds of 110km/hr and he hung on to the windscreen wipers for dear life.

Lace Stone captured the incident on film as the train travelled parallel with Mitchell Freeway, and with the footage posted on Facebook she wrote: "When u don't wanna ride with the filth on the train but u got places to be."

The man was arrested by officers from the city's Public Transport Authority (PTA) when the train arrived at its next stop at Stirling station.

He was taken to hospital for a mental health assessment. The Australian government's transport ministry will investigate.

PTA spokesman David Hynes said he could have easily have been killed.

"In all other instances it generally goes up on Facebook or on the internet, on YouTube after the event. They want to get on YouTube, they want mainstream publicity so they don't try to get themselves caught, so we don't often know about it until it's well after the event," he said, according to ABC News.