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At Least Nine Killed in Head-On German Train Crash

The site of a collision between two trains in southern Germany on Feb. 9, 2016.

Peter Kneffel/AFP/Getty Images

Two commuter trains somehow collided head on at an estimated 60 mph near Munich on Tuesday, killing at least nine people and injuring many others. From CNN:

The trains collided at a bend on the Mangfall Valley Railway, a single-track regional rail line between the towns of Rosenheim and Holzkirchen, German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt said.

“There’s a curve there, so we must assume that the train drivers must not have been able to see each other beforehand,” he told reporters at a news conference.

The crash occurred at 6:48 a.m. local time. Both drivers are believed to have been killed.

It’s not yet known whether it was a technical or human error that led to both trains being on the same track; the Guardian says both were equipped with automatic brake systems that should have kicked in when/if their drivers failed to stop at a red light signal.