Dozens Injured As Trains Collide Near Germany's Mannheim

Carriages of a freight train and a passenger train are derailed after an accident close to the main station of Mannheim, Germany. Photo by EPA/UWE ANSPACH.

Dozens of people were reported injured as a passenger train collided with a freight train on Friday night near the city of Mannheim in the southwest of Germany.

According to local police reports, the accident happened at around 9:00 p.m. local time on Friday. A freight train ran into a passenger train at the central railway station in Mannheim.

The two tipped-over cars of the Eurocity speed train en route from Austria’s Graz to Germany’s Saarbruecken on border with France carried a total of 110 passengers at the time of the accident, Itar-Tass informed.

At least forty people were injured in the accident while five were suffered serious injuries, according to a spokesman for Mannheim's fire department, cited by Deutsche Welle. According to the officials, the accident likely would have been worse, had the trains not been traveling at a slow speed due to their proximity to the central station.

The cause for the accident was not immediately known. Mannheim's central station was closed after the accident.