A high-tech train travelling at high speed has crashed into a service vehicle in
north-western Germany, killing 23 people and injuring 10 others.
The electro-magnetic Transrapid train was travelling at about 170 kilometres per hour on a monorail test-track when it slammed into the other vehicle near the town of Lathen.
The concrete track sits on stilts about five metres above the ground but the train did not plunge off the track, instead partially derailing and complicating rescue efforts.
The area around the track was littered with train seats, broken
glass, bags and clothes.
Around 400 rescue workers searched for the victims and the survivors with the help of sniffer dogs while firefighters were hoisted up to the train on
cranes.
All of those hurt are in a serious condition and being treated in hospital.
'Human error'
The prosecutor's office in the city of Osnabrueck said the collision was the result of "human error", with a radio communication problem possibly to blame.
Officials said the service vehicle is used every day to clean the track but should not have been in operation at the same time as the train, officials said.
A spokesman for the company that operates the track, IABG, says no
sign of a technical fault had been found in initial checks.
"We are distraught about this accident and will establish the cause as soon as possible," spokesman Rudolf Schwarz said.
Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived at the site early in the evening and met relatives of the victims.
"Perhaps my presence here will be a small sign that many people
in Germany share their grief," she said.
The accident happened on a 31.8-km test track, the longest of its kind in the world. Built in the 1980s, it runs between Lathen and the nearby town of Doerpen.
The magnetic levitation, or maglev, train is not powered by an engine but 'floats' above the track.