Germany: Two trains collided on a single- track stretch in southern Germany yesterday, killing at least six people and leaving at least 25 people injured writes Derek Scally in Berlin
The two regional trains crashed into each other around noon between the rural towns of Niederstetten and Schrozberg, north-east of Stuttgart, in the south-western state of Baden-Württemberg.
The accident was apparently caused when one driver began his journey down the single-track stretch without realising that the train coming in the opposite direction was delayed and approaching on the same stretch of track in the opposite direction.
The impact sent one of the two trains tumbling down a 10-metre-high embankment, and threw many passengers from the train. Among the dead were the two train drivers and a reported three children, police officials said.
Deutsche Bahn (DB), the German train company, sent engineering experts and psychologists to the scene yesterday afternoon. A DB spokesman said it remained unclear how the two trains ended up hurtling towards each other on the single-track line. The impact sent one diesel locomotive tumbling down an embankment and derailed a passenger car. The injured were brought to local hospitals by helicopter.
"At this time our sympathy is with the victims and their relatives," Mr Harmut Mehdorn, chief executive of Deutsche Bahn AG, the German train company, said. He promised "fast, unbureaucratic help and support" to the bereaved.
Mr Erwin Teufel, the state premier of Baden-Württemberg, said he was "deeply shocked" by the accident.