January 31, 2011 4:17:34 am
A head-on collision between a cargo and a passenger train killed 10 people and injured 23 others in eastern Germany,the police said Sunday. Authorities believe the death toll could rise in one of the countrys worst train accidents.
The trains crashed in heavy fog late Saturday on a single-line track near the village of Hordorf,close to Saxony-Anhalts state capital Magdeburg. Its about 200 km southwest of Berlin,Germanys capital.
The crash was so strong that the passenger train was catapulted off the tracks onto a nearby field, Armin Friedrich,the police officer in charge of the rescue efforts,said at a news conference in Hordorf.
The noise of the collision was heard in Oschersleben village,about seven kilometres from the crash site. The cause of the crash was under investigation,with experts looking at all possibilities,including technical failure and human error. Nearly 200 police and rescue workers were sent to the crash site.
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We are still speechless and shocked by the images and the level of destruction, said Holger Hoevelmann,the interior minister of Saxony-Anhalt.
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