A train has derailed in southern Germany, killing four and seriously injuring a number of people, police have said.
The train derailed on Friday lunchtime around 12:20 pm in the Burgrain area, near the popular ski resort town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
There are at least people four dead and numerous others seriously injured, said a spokesman for the Garmisch-Partenkirchen district office of the German Press Agency.
"It's a big operation that's going on right now," said the spokesman for the police headquarters in Upper Bavaria South.
The regional train was northbound to Munich when the accident happened, derailing near Garmisch-Partenkirchen close to the Loisachauen industrial park. Several carriages overturned and some fell down the embankment.
According to Tagblatt, there were numerous students aboard and around 60 passengers were injured and 15 in a critical state.
The horror crash comes only days after Germany launched a new discounted rail ticket to encourage its citizens to take the train and it was said the train was "very crowded and many people were using it, hence the high number of injured".
Air ambulances are on-site, taking injured passengers to the hospital and some of the emergency services are using ladders to get into the carriages to free the injured passengers, local newspapers have reported.
The Farchanter Tunnel and the Federal Highway number two, South has closed while the rescue operation is underway.
There are four lanes manned by emergency vehicles and rescue workers, with numerous police officers, who were in Garmisch-Partenkirchen for the upcoming G7 summit, aiding.
The spokesperson for the integrated control centre in the Oberland said several people were taken to the nearest hospital and a "full alarm was raised for the fire and rescue services."
They continued: "People are being pulled through the windows."
An American soldier was in one of the cars on the road next to the railway line and said the ordeal was terrible. He told the Garmisch Partenkirchner newspaper: "Just awful. Suddenly the train overturned.”
All injured and uninjured have been recovered from the train, but the police fears that there will be more deaths.
An elderly man who survived the accident unharmed said everything happened very quickly. He told the Tagblatt: "Suddenly there was a lot of rumbling and then there was dust."
