10 February,2016 08:09 AM IST | | Agencies
Investigators are probing whether the crash was caused due to a technical problem or a human error
Bad Aibling (Germany): Two commuter trains fitted with automatic braking systems to prevent accidents collided in southern Germany yesterday, leaving at least 10 dead and dozens injured. Rescuers were still searching for one missing person in the mangled wreckage in a wooded area near Bad Aibling.
An aerial view of the crash site in Bad Aibling, Germany. PIC/AFP
One of the trains had sliced into the other, ripping its side apart. Blue, yellow and silver metal debris was strewn around the crash site next to a river in the southern state of Bavaria.
Police said 10 people had lost their lives in total, while 18 people were seriously hurt and 63 had light injuries. The two drivers and two conductors were among those killed, local broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk reported.
Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the rail track was fitted with an automatic braking system aimed at preventing such crashes, and that investigators were probing if there had been "a technical problem or human error".
Three black boxes on the trains should help shed light on the accident, he said, adding that two had already been recovered. The trains collided at high speed on a single track, and the drivers probably did not see each other until the last minute because the crash happened at a curve, said Dobrindt.
