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Germany: A regional passenger train derailed in a forested location in southwestern Germany on Sunday, killing three people and injuring numerous more, according to authorities.

At around 6:10 p.m. (1610 GMT), the train carrying about 100 people was involved in an accident close to the town of Riedlingen in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

When AFP contacted the police, they first reported that four persons had been slain before changing their story to just three casualties.

Although rescue personnel told tabloid Bild that there were 50 wounded, authorities would not reveal how many people were affected or how badly.

Deutsche Bahn, a German train company, acknowledged many fatalities and multiple injuries. It further said that two train cars had derailed “for reasons yet unknown.”

The operator said that traffic had been halted along a 40-kilometer (25-mile) section of the route while authorities looked into the accident’s causes.

As strong storms blasted across the area, meteorological services said the catastrophe could have been caused by a landslide, according to German media.

The passenger train derailed in a wooded region when it was traveling from Sigmaringen, Germany, to Ulm.

Antiquated Railroad Infrastructure

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz sent his sympathies to the families of the deceased in a social media message.

He went on to say that he had been in constant communication with the ministries of transportation and interior and had requested that they “provide the emergency services with all the support they need.”

As rescue personnel and firemen attempted to reach the passengers, footage from the accident site showed yellow and gray train cars resting on their sides.

Emergency physicians from surrounding hospitals were notified, and helicopters came soon after the accident to take the wounded to local hospitals, according to local TV station SWR.

Passengers often criticize German transportation for its antiquated infrastructure, which frequently causes train delays and other technical issues.

Over the next few years, the government has committed to spending several hundred billion euros, mostly on infrastructure modernization.

Four people were killed and several more were injured when a train derailed in June 2022 close to a Bavarian Alpine resort in southern Germany.

Near 1998, a state-owned Deutsche Bahn high-speed train derailed near Eschede, Lower Saxony, killing 101 people in the country’s bloodiest rail catastrophe.