After teen activist Greta Thunberg posted a picture of herself sitting on the floor of a train surrounded by luggage on Sunday, she had sparked off quite a 'tweet-storm'.
"Traveling on overcrowded trains through Germany. And I’m finally on my way home!" she had captioned the photo. She was on her way home from the COP25 climate summit in Madrid.
German railway company Deutsche Bahn AG through their Twitter account however suggested that Greta's journey was not as uncomfortable as others on social media might have thought.
In a rather testy Tweet DB pointed out that Thunberg had travelled in first class during her journey through Germany.
"Dear Greta, thanks for supporting us railway workers in our fight against climate change. We are happy that you travelled with us on the ICE 174 on Saturday," tweeted DB's official account in German.
In a second tweet the rail company added that it would have been "nicer if you had also mentioned the friendly and competent manner in which you were treated by staff at your seat in first class".
The company then followed up the tweets with a press release, in which they added that Greta's travel companions "were sitting in first class from Frankfurt onwards".
Thunberg however was quick to clarify on the issue.
"Our train from Basel was taken out of traffic. So we sat on the floor on 2 different trains. After Göttingen I got a seat.This is no problem of course and I never said it was. Overcrowded trains is a great sign because it means the demand for train travel is high!," wrote the 16-year-old.
This is the first Twitter back-and-forth that Thunberg has engaged in recently.
Her online run-in with Deutsche Bahn comes just days after a high-profile Twitter clash with US president Donald Trump.
After Thunberg was named TIME magazine's person of the year, Trump tweeted that she had "anger management problems" and told her to "chill".
"So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!" he wrote.
Thunberg riposted quickly by changing her Twitter bio to "A teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend."
The 16-year-old activist started a worldwide movement last year when she began to strike from school every Friday to protest government inaction on climate change.
Refusing to fly, she has twice crossed the Atlantic by boat in recent months in order to speak at a UN climate summit in New York and the hastily rearranged COP25 summit in Madrid.
(With inputs from AFP)
