High-Speed Train Derails After Hitting Sheep

The train was travelling faster than 200 km (120 mph) per hour. It was en route from Hamburg to Munich when it hit into the herd of sheep.

Four people were seriously injured when a German Intercity Express (ICE) train derailed at a speed of over 200 km (120 mph) per hour after hitting a flock of sheep in a tunnel near Fulda, German police said on Sunday.

The four, suffering broken bones, were taken to hospital. Another 19 people with lesser injuries including bruises and cuts were treated and released.

"You didn't know what was happening. I flew through the air and all the luggage was flying around. You just wanted to get out of there," one woman told German television network N-TV.

"Fortunately there were only a few injuries. I think we can all celebrate our new birthdays today."

The train carrying 135 people was en route from Hamburg to Munich late on Saturday when it ran into sheep that had wandered into the 11-km (7-mile) Landruecken tunnel, the longest in Germany. Ten of its 12 carriages came off the track.

The driver of the train was not seriously injured.

"It was a really large flock of sheep that had lost its way in the tunnel," said German federal police spokesman Reza Ahmari. "The train collided with at least 20 sheep and derailed. It was travelling at more than 200 km per hour."

German television showed pictures of slaughtered sheep on both sides of the track deep inside the tunnel as well as the derailed train, with its badly damaged locomotive covered in dust. Several windows were broken.

It was unclear how the sheep got into the tunnel and police have opened a criminal investigation.

"We've been questioning the owner of the sheep," said Ahmari. "But he's in a state of shock."

The police spokesman said rail traffic on the high-speed north-south rail link was being diverted. The track and tunnel were badly damaged.

A Deutsche Bahn spokesman said all trains travelling on the busy route would have delays of about 30 minutes for the next several days.

In 1998, 101 people were killed and 103 hurt when ICE train number 884 derailed near the central town of Eschede on the same Munich-Hamburg route at a speed of over 200 km per hour and crashed into a bridge which then collapsed.

It was Germany's worst rail disaster in half a century.