At least four people have been killed and dozens left seriously injured after a train crashed in southern Germany on Friday.
The train heading for Munich derailed at about 12.15pm in Burgrain, near the ski resort town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, cops said.
Footage from the scene shows crumpled double-decker carriages on their side with debris strewn across the tracks as stunned passengers clamber out of smashed windows with their suitcases.
Rescue workers are still scrambling to find survivors in the carnage with firefighters forced to chop down trees to access the wreckage.
“People are being pulled through the windows,” a police spokesman told BILD.
He said “all age groups” were among the seriously injured.
The authorities confirmed at least four people have been killed.
Sixty passengers have been injured, 16 of them seriously, according to the Garmisch-Partenkirchen municipal office.
It’s thought many schoolchildren would have been on the train after breaking up for the holidays on Friday.
The cause of the derailment was not immediately clear.
The mountain resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and its surrounding regions are currently gearing up to host the G7 summit of world leaders later this month.
From June 26 to 28, the heads of state and government, including US President Joe Biden, are due to meet at Schloss Elmau – about seven miles from Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Cops and soldiers who had been deployed to secure the site ahead of the summit have now been diverted to help in the rescue operation.
Three helicopters from Austria’s Tyrol region have also raced to the scene, according to reports.
An American soldier who witnessed the crash from a nearby road said the scene was “just awful”.
He told the Garmisch Partenkirchner Tagblatt: “It was terrible. Just awful. Suddenly the train overturned.”
An elderly passenger who survived the crash after rescue workers smashed a window and dragged him out said “there was a lot of rumbling and then there was dust”.