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1 April 2004
FREIBURG – At least two persons were injured when a high-speed passenger train derailed Thursday after a tractor apparently toppled down the slope of a vineyard onto the tracks.
Rescue teams and police rushed to the scene near the town of Efringen-Kirchen, close to border with Switzerland and some 30 kilometres south of Freiburg in the extreme southwestern part of Germany.
Police officials told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the driver of the tractor was seriously injured and the train driver slightly hurt. Numerous passengers suffered from shock.
But the N24 news television channel, citing German border police (BGS) officials, spoke of three persons injured, including the tractor driver and two persons on the train.
The ICE 600 train, operating between the Swiss border city of Basle and the Ruhr industrial city of Dortmund, was travelling on the Rhine River stretch of the route between Basle and Karlsruhe when the accident occurred at around 9:35 a.m.(0735 GMT).
Officials said that rail traffic in both directions along the route was was blocked, causing disruptions in services to several other German cities.
Bus operations were being set up to transport rail passengers to train stations not affected by the accident, while wreckage removal operations at the accident site were expected to take several hours.
DPA
Subject: German news