why would you be able to pull the axle out if its broken?

they always break at the end of the splines as thats the weakest point in the axle, then the axle just cruises around inside the diff smashing the parts of the centre that it comes in contact with

the axles arent like alot of older bigger car axles that are undersized the whole way and break on the outside of the wheel bearing, causing the wheel to fall off

but yes its either a broken axle or the welds in the centre werent up to the job and have broken