At least four people are dead after a Munich-bound train crashed in southern Germany just after noon on Friday.
The regional express train, said to be full with commuters and schoolchildren, crashed at 12.15pm on a stretch of track north of the Bavarian ski resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Police put the number of injured at about 30, 15 of whom were seriously injured and taken to hospitals.
“It was terrible, suddenly the train tipped over on to its side,” said one eyewitness to local media. Another spoke of a “sudden rumbling and then a lot of dust”.
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Local media reported many school students were onboard while images showed three carriages of a double-decker regional train lying sideways on an embankment, trapped between tree branches.
Local police rushed to the scene, assisted by the German army and rescue helicopters from Tyrol in neighbouring Austria.
“People are being lifted out of the wreck via the windows, we have injured people in all age groups,” said a local authority spokesman. The spokesman had previously reported that 60 people were hurt but that was the total number of passengers on the train.
On a visit to the crash scene, German chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his shock at the “shattering news” of the train accident.
“Our sympathy is with the relatives and with the injured, whom we wish a speedy recovery,” he said.
The mayor of Garmisch-Partenkirchen Elisabeth Koch (CSU) thanked the rescue workers for their quick work at the crash site, warning that further bodies might be discovered after the train was hoisted from the crash site.
“It’s simply horrible,” she said.
Bavaria’s transport minister Christian Bernreiter said the cause of the train crash was still being investigated on Friday evening.
“There were no third parties involved here so one has to assume that some technical cause either with the vehicle or on the track must be the cause,” said Mr Bernreiter to local media, noting that the rail network is the responsibility of the federal government in Berlin.
He thanked rescue workers and 15 Bundeswehr soldiers, who were nearby at the time of the accident and “helped immediately in a highly professional manner”.
By 5pm local police said the initial rescue operation had been completed.
Rescue workers continued their search into the evening but warned that “working in such an area is not without risk”.
German rail operator Deutsche Bahn expressed its deep sorrow after the crash in Garmisch-Patenkirchen, which is hosting the G7 conference later this month.
The deaths are a disaster for the state-owned rail company ahead of the Pentecost bank holiday weekend, traditionally a busy travel period. Germany’s regional trains are extra full this year, three days into a summer-long promotion allowing rail traverse the country for €9 a month until September.
