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Video | Head-on train crash in Germany that kills 10 and wounds 50 prompts criminal probe
A criminal probe has begun into a tragedy that killed ten people and injured nearly 50, many of them seriously, after a head-on crash between a passenger and a freight train in Germany.
Ten people were killed and nearly 50 were injured after the crash in Hordorf near Oschersleben, eastern Germany last night when a passenger train and a freight train collided head-on.
Both trains were travelling at speed - the passenger train at close to 70 mph, the goods train at 50 mph.
The regional passenger train was hurled from the tracks due to the force of the collision at Hordorf, five miles from the town of Oschersleben in the state of Saxony-Anhalt shortly after 10.20pm on Saturday evening.
Nine of those who died in the accident were all in the front compartment of the passenger train and died instantly, according to police, along with the passenger train driver. One of the victims was a female ticket collector.
Children have been reported to be among the dead, and one of the injured is fighting for his life in hospital. Every available emergency services vehicle in the region was sent to the scene of the tragedy, but snow and fog hampered rescue efforts at the scene, ruling out the use of helicopters to transfer the wounded to local hospitals.
While so far it has been determined that there was maintenance work on the railway line and that green signals were on for both trains to proceed at the same time, prosecutors have begun a criminal investigation as to whether human error or a technical defect placed both trains on the same stretch of line.
The HEX - HarzElbeExpress - passenger train was travelling from the city of Magdeburg to Halberstadt, formerly the last border town between East and West Germany.
The train was one of a number of privately operated passenger services in Germany but used German Railways track. The freight train, carrying lime, was also operated by a private company.
The accident is the worst of its kind in Germany in a decade.
Local politicians were at the scene at first light on Sunday and Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin sent a message of condolence to the families of the victims.
