Multiple deaths and around 150 people injured when two packed commuter trains hit each other head-on in Germany
- Two commuter trains collide head-on in Bavaria, south-east Germany
- At least four have died and 150 people have been injured, police say
- Collision on single-track rail may have been cause by signal failure
- Local police call crash 'the biggest accident we have had in years'
Several people have died and around 150 have been injured in an early morning train crash in southern Germany.
Two trains packed with 'hundreds' of rush hour commuters collided head-on near Bad Aibling, in Bavaria just before 6.50am on Tuesday morning.
Police have confirmed four fatalities and some 150 people injured, of which at least 15 suffering life threatening injuries, and 40 severely injured.
Crash: Two trains packed with 'hundreds' of rush hour commuters collided near Bad Aibling, in Bavaria on Tuesday morning, causing train to derail, killing several people
Several German media outlets, including Bild newspaper, is reporting at least eight deaths.
One of the trains derailed in the crash and several wagons overturned after the collision, which took place around 37miles south of Munich.
SHARE THIS ARTICLE
The accident took place on a single-track rail, and state-owned operators Deutsche Bahn are now investigating whether the cause of the incident was a signal failure.
A spokesman for German Federal Police in Bavaria said that the crash took place 'in an inaccessible region' and that rescue personnel are still trying to get passengers out of the trains.
Collision: At least four people died and another 150 were injured when the two trains collided near the southern German town of Bad Aibling
Rescue personnel wait in Bad Aibling, Germany, after two regional trains crashed killing at least four
Police say several people are still stuck inside the wreckage, and at least ten people have suffered severe injuries in the crash early Tuesday morning
Police spokesman Stefan Sonntag said two regional trains crashed head-on on the single track between Rosenheim and Holzkirchen shortly before 7am.
Sonntag said that at least two people had died in the crash, but that the scene of the accident was so confusing that he did not have any specific numbers of injured and dead yet.
'This is the biggest accident we have had in years in this region and we have many emergency doctors, ambulances and helicopters on the scene,' Sonntag said.
At least ten rescue helicopters are currently at the scene, with injured passengers being airlifted to hospitals some 30 minutes away.
German news agency Dpa quoted Bernd Rosenbusch, the head of the Bayerische Oberlandbahn, which runs the trains, as saying, 'this is a huge shock - we are doing everything to help the passengers, relatives and employees.'
A total of eight medical helicopters from the towns of Nuremberg, Salzburg and Innsbruck have been deployed for the rescue operation
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3438376/Train-crash-southern-Germany-causes-injuries.html#ixzz3zgGLZwpv
