Germany train crash: Death toll rises to Nine; more than 80 injured

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was “dismayed” over the head-on collision of two commuter trains on Tuesday that killed at least nine people and injured more than 100.

In a statement, the German state railway company Deutsche Bahn, which owns and maintains the entire German rail network, said the line in the collision area was designed so that trains can travel up to 120 km / h. It was not immediately clear how many people were injured, but a spokeswoman for police in Upper Bavaria confirmed to German news agency dpa that there were deaths. Hundreds of rescue crews using helicopters and small boats shuttled injured passengers to the other side of the Mangfall River to waiting ambulances, which took them to hospitals across southern Bavaria. More than two hours after the crash, emergency services were still trying to reach people trapped in the wreckage.

Rainer Scharf, a Bavarian police officer, said that “given the severity of the accident, we believe the two regional trains collided head-on at low speed”. Authorities said it took about three hours to remove the victims from the scene.

“It’s one of the biggest accidents we have had in the last few years”, he said.

Police spokesman Stefan Sonntag said that 150 people were injured in the Tuesday morning crash, including 50 severely.

The crash happened at a peak commuter time of 6.48 a.m.

About 700 emergency personnel from Germany and neighboring Austria were involved in the rescue efforts and about a dozen helicopters were used.

The two trains from the so-called Meridian line were both partially derailed and wedged against one another, train operater Bayerische Oberlandbahn said in a statement on its website.

“One train really drilled itself into the second train and the driver cab of the second train has been entirely shattered”, Dobrindt said.

Christian Schreyer, chief executive of Transdev, said: “We are deeply shocked and stunned that something like this could have happened”.