Train crash in southern Germany causes deaths, injuries

German news agency Dpa, citing a federal police official on the scene, says that about 150 people were injured in the crash Tuesday morning between two regional trains near Bad Aibling, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) southeast of Munich.

One of the trains totally derailed after the collision, with several carriages overturning.

Helicopters of rescue services and an ambulance are seen at a field near Bad Aibling in southwestern Germany, February 9, 2016.

Each train can hold up to 1,000 passengers and they are commonly used by children traveling to school.

Alexander Dobrindt, the German transport minister, has said the train line was fitted systems which should have stopped a crash like today’s from happening.

Police said they did not rule out finding more dead and wounded in the wreckage.

Authorities issued an urgent call for blood donations, as ambulances and rescue helicopters from neighboring Austria carried the injured to hospitals across the region.

The drivers of both trains and two train guards were among those killed, regional broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk said, quoting police. “It is bad”, said Stefan Sonntag, spokesman for Upper Bavaria police.

So far police have said nothing about the cause of the crash on the single-track line.

“The trains were wedged into each other and partly derailed”, according to a statement online from Meridian.

Local news reports said the trains collided at 6:48 a.m. local time between the stations of Holzkirchen and Rosenheim.

More than three hours after the crash, rescue workers were still trying to reach injured passengers trapped in the wreckage of the crash, which caused several rail cars to come off the track. “We’re doing everything we can to help passengers, relatives and employees”.

Head of Deutsche Bahn, the company which runs Germany’s railways, said: “We are deeply affected by the accident”.

Two commuter trains collided head-on in southern Germany today, killing at least eight people and injuring around 100, in one of the country’s deadliest rail accidents in years.