At least ten people were killed after two trains collided head-on in southern Germany on Tuesday, and about 80 others were injured, according to reports. Police said there were about 150 passengers on board the two trains.
The crash occurred shortly before 7 a.m. Tuesday local time near the spa town of Bad Aibling, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) southeast of the Bavarian capital of Munich.
All survivors have now been taken to safety and investigators are beginning to look through the wreckage.
Aerial scenes of the crash, near Bad Aibling, showed the mangled cars in a wooded area parallel to a line of ambulances and rescue vehicles. Dozens of rescue workers combed the scene throughout the morning, searching for more survivors amid steel and broken glass.
“This is the biggest accident we have had in years in this region,” police spokesman Stefan Sonntag said, according to the Associated Press. Alexander Dobrindt, Germany’s Tranport Minister, said more time was needed to draw a conclusion about what happened: “We need to determine immediately whether it was a technical problem or a human mistake.”
Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told broadcaster Bayern 2 that the number of people killed in the crash now stands at 10.
“This is a tragedy for our whole country,” Bavarian minister-president Horst Seehofer has said. “It fills us with sadness and horror.”
“I trust that the responsible authorities will do everything to find out how this accident could have happened,” Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a statement.
