An exercise derailed Friday near a Bavarian alpine hotel in southern Germany, killing at least four other people and injuring dozens in a region preparing to host the G7 summit in late June.
Several local red exercise cars lay on their sides on a lawn next to a road.
Rescuers stood on top of the cars, ladders to get into the cars so they could rescue the trapped passengers.
“In the serious rail accident, at 15:32 (15:32 GMT), 4 other people were fatally injured,” police said in a statement.
The exercise bound for Munich Photo: NETWORK PICTURES via AFP
“About thirty passengers were injured, 15 of them so serious that they had to be admitted to nearby hospitals,” they said, adding that a large rescue operation is underway.
Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said three of the sick were found dead, while a fourth succumbed to their injuries on the way to hospital.
Foreign Minister Olaf Scholz said he was surprised by the twist of fate and said his sympathy went to the families of the victims.
The crash came as rail officials were nervously searching whether a new nine-euro ($10)-a-month publicly price ticket valid across Germany would lead to crowded trains on the holiday weekend.
Three Austrian helicopters have arrived to assist in rescue operations Photo: NETWORK PICTURES AFP/STR
Stefan Sonntag of the Upper Bavarian police said the regional exercise was “very crowded and many other people were, hence the higher number of injured. “
School holidays also began on Saturday in Germany’s two southern regions, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, raising fears that young people may be among the injured.
Footage broadcast on German television showed teenagers on the tracks, after they controlled getting off the train.
The exercise had just left Garmisch-Partenkirchen for Munich, when the turn of fate occurred in the Burgrain district of the spa, shortly after noon.
A G7 summit of world leaders will take place in the region later this month Photo: PHOTOS FROM AFP NETWORK
Part of the road between Munich and Garmisch-Partenkirchen was blocked and traffic was diverted, said German rail operator Deutsche Bahn, which has not yet been able to give an explanation of the reason for the crash.
But Bavarian Transport Minister Christian Bernreiter told regional broadcaster BR that the fate’s turnaround was possibly due to a technical glitch.
“There were no third parties involved here, so it will have to be assumed that the cause was a technical explanation, either in the vehicle or on the rail,” he said.
Even as Germany introduced the heavily subsidized monthly shipping price ticket starting in June for 3 months to ease inflation, Deutsche Bahn warned that large investments would be needed to modernize the tracks.
“We have a problem that is difficult to solve in the short term: growing and modernizing at the same time,” Richard Lutz, head of Deutsche Bahn, said on Monday.
The mountain hotel Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the surrounding region have begun arrangements to host the G7 summit of world leaders later this month.
From June 26 to 28, the heads of state and government, US President Joe Biden, will meet at Elmau Castle, 11 kilometres from Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Police and infantrymen who had been deployed to prepare and secure the site ahead of the summit also enlisted to assist in the rescue operation.
According to media reports, 3 helicopters from the Austrian region of Tyrol were sent to the site to provide first aid.
Germany’s deadliest rail accident occurred in 1998 when a high-speed exercise operated through state-owned Deutsche Bahn derailed in Eschede, Lower Saxony, killing people.
The last fatal twist of fate took place on February 14, 2022, when one user was killed and 14 others were injured in a collision between two local trains near Munich.
In 2017, a passenger exercise and a cargo exercise collided near the western city of Düsseldorf, injuring 41 people.