Germany: 9 passengers die in head-on crash

A 160-tonne crane arrived at the scene of the disaster on Wednesday, as salvage workers prepared to remove the two mangled trains from the track.

Rescuers and journalists stand in front of a rescue helicopter near Bad Aibling in southwestern Germany.

Rescue and salvage crews are still working at the site of the crash near the town of Bad Aibling, roughly 40 miles southeast of Munich.

Police say the death toll from a head-on train collision in southern Germany has risen to 10 after one of the people injured died in hospital.

Police said one of the trains had derailed and several carriages overturned, and said the final tally of injuries and fatalities was yet to be confirmed.

A fatal train crash in southern Germany on Tuesday morning was caused by “human error”, anonymous sources close to the investigation told German media on Tuesday.

“Due to the tragic train accident in the district of Rosenheim there is an acute increased need for life-saving blood products”, the appeal read.

After the train collision, rescue operation is in full swing. Police added that many more people would have been killed, had it been a regular work week.

A spokesman for German federal police in Bavaria, Matthias Knott, said that the region was very inaccessible and making rescue efforts more hard. The names of the victims were not released, but all of them were men aged between 24 and 60.

18 of those injured are said to be in a serious condition. While the train dispatcher had already been interrogated, that did not mean he was necessarily under suspicion.

Police would not confirm the reports, and a spokeswoman from the transport ministry would also not be drawn.

He added that one of three black boxes showed there was “no technical problem on the line and that the signal handling of the driver was correct”. They are speaking to the witnesses and the train dispatchers.

Officials have refused to speculate on the cause of the collision until the data boxes have been analysed.

Train operator Bayerische Oberlandbahn said it had started a hotline for family and friends to check on passengers. Bus services were offered instead. “The other train bored into it”. The two trains slammed into each other on a curve without braking after an automatic safety system apparently failed to stop them, the transport minister said.

He said his vehicle was still on the tracks, but he could see the train that hit it and the first two wagons of his train were twisted and torn open.

The safety system was implemented across the country’s railways after a 2011 crash in the town of Oschersleben, in eastern Germany, in which 10 people were killed, said Dobrindt.

A joint memorial service by the Catholic and Lutheran churches is being planned but no specific date has been set yet.

Rising and Grieshaber reported from Berlin.