Two commuter trains collided head-on in southern Germany on Tuesday, killing at least eight people and injuring around 100, in one of the country's deadliest rail accidents in years.
Hundreds of rescuers were racing to pull passengers from the wreckage in a wooded area near Bad Aibling, a spa town about 60 kilometres (40 miles) southeast of Munich.
Several carriages were overturned.
"We have eight dead on the trains," said police spokesman Juergen Thaimeier, adding that about 100 people had been injured, 55 of them seriously.
Local police spokesman Martin Winkler had earlier given a toll of four dead.
But rescuers subsequently found another four bodies in the train wreckage.
The "tragic accident occurred on the single-track route between Rosenheim and Holzkirchen this morning shortly after 7:00 am (0600 GMT)," regional rail company Meridian, a subsidiary of the French group Transdev, said in a statement.
The cause of the accident was not immediately clear.
Rainer Scharf, a police officer from the southern state of Bavaria, said that "given the severity of the accident, we believe the two regional trains collided head-on at a low speed."
He added that the priority was to "rescue the many injured".
The police tweeted that several hundred emergency services workers were on the scene in the rural area.
Rescue workers from nearby Austria were also on site, rolling news channel NTV said.
About a dozen helicopters were also deployed, with television footage showing them waiting in a clearing outside the forest, from where rescuers were emerging with stretchers carrying the injured.
A journalist for local broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk reported that rescuers were climbing on the wreckage and pulling people out.
The rail route was closed to traffic, as well as two local roads.
"The accident is an enormous shock for us," said Bernd Rosenbusch, who heads the Bavarian rail company BOB that operates trains on the route.
"We will do everything to help travellers, their relatives and our employees," he added.
The accident is believed to be the first deadly train crash since April 2012, when three people were killed and 13 injured in a collision between two regional trains in the western German town of Offenbach.
The country's deadliest post-war accident happened in 1998, when a high-speed ICE train linking Munich and Hamburg derailed, killing 101 people and injuring 88 at the northern town of Eschede.
AFP
Tue Feb 09 2016
Firefighters and emergency doctors work at the site of a train accident near Bad Aibling, southern Germany, on February 9, 2016. - AFP pic
Piala Uber: Pearly ambil sudut positif jika tidak ke Chengdu
Pearly Tan tidak berasa kecil hati sekiranya beliau dan pasangan M. Thinaah, tidak disenaraikan ke skuad Piala Uber 2024 di Chengdu, China.
Penguasaan asas teknologi AI sangat penting untuk pelajar
Penguasaan terhadap asas AI adalah perlu dan penting seiring dengan penguasaan 3M (menulis, mengira dan membaca).
Pasaran saham ST1 positif, dijangka berterusan sehingga H2
Pasaran FBM KLCI mencatat prestasi baik dengan pulangan sekitar 5.7%. Imran Yassin Md Yusof, Ketua MIDF Research, menjangkakan sentimen positif akan berterusan sehingga separuh kedua tahun ini. Sektor cemerlang termasuk utiliti, hartanah, dan pembinaan.
Peningkatan IHPR beri petanda positif kepada perdagangan
Menurut Pengarah Program MBA, Putra Business School (PBS), Prof Madya Dr. Ahmed Razman Abdul Latiff, prestasi Indeks Harga Pengeluar (IHPR) Pengeluaran Tempatan Malaysia yang meningkat pada Februari 2024 menyifatkan pertumbuhan perdagangan berada di tahap yang baik.
Jangan ambil tindakan sendiri, Malaysia ada undang-undang - KPN
Ketua Polis Negara, Tan Sri Razarudin Husain memberi amaran dan peringatan keras kepada orang ramai untuk tidak mengambil tindakan sendiri.
SolaRIS memberdaya permintaan solar, tingkat peluang kerja - Pakar
Permohonan boleh dibuat bermula 1 April sehingga 31 Disember 2024 dan permohonan NEM Rakyat yang telah diperolehi perlu beroperasi selewat-lewatnya 31 Mac 2025, atau sehingga kesemua kuota rebat SolaRIS habis diagihkan, yang mana terdahulu.
Masyarakat dinasihati pantau penggunaan tenaga elektrik
Ketua Pegawai Retail, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), Kamal Ariffin A.Rahman berkata cuaca panas melampau mampu memberi kesan kepada kadar permintaan dan penggunaan peralatan elektrik isi rumah.
Perginya Tokoh Wartawan Negara 2014 Datuk Ahmad Rejal Arbee
Jenazah Tokoh Wartawan Negara 2014 allahyarham Datuk Ahmad Rejal Arbee Mahmud Isa Arbee selamat dikebumikan di Tanah Perkuburan Seksyen 7 Shah Alam pada Jumaat.
'No free lunch', tiada penambahan hari tol percuma - Ahmad Maslan
Kerajaan tidak berhasrat untuk menambah bilangan hari bagi pemberian tol percuma sempena Aidilfitri tahun ini.
Masters Sepanyol: Jun Hao, Wan Arif-Roy King teruskan cabaran
Leong Jun Hao mengesahkan slot suku akhir Sepanyol Masters Super 300 selepas menewaskan pilihan keenam dari Taiwan, Lin Chun Yi.