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Duisburg subway collision, 23 injured

April 4, 2018

Both police and the city subway rail operator have said it's too early to speculate on the collision's cause. The crash injured 23, two of them seriously. One of the drivers was taken to the hospital

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Duisburg U-Bahn-Crash
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Revierfoto

A spokesperson for the Duisburg police said Wednesday morning that authorities had yet to determined the cause of a local train crash that injured 23 people on Tuesday.

A 903 line train rear-ended another train on the same line in a tunnel near the Auf dem Damm stop in the Meiderich quarter of Duisburg, a city in western Germany, on Tuesday afternoon, authorities said. Pictures showed the wind shield on the back of the forward train lying on the tracks and dents on the nose.

Read more: German president visits 'no-go' Duisburg neighborhood

Around 80 emergency workers were mobilized, tending to around 40 people as police investigated the scene. Authorities said 23 people were injured — two of them seriously — and 15 others were affected but did not sustain any bodily injuries.

Driver taken to hospital

The driver operating the rear train was brought to the hospital suffering from shock, the Duisburg transit company (DVG) said on Tuesday. They expected the driver to be able to provide more information on the incident.

"We will find out more as soon as the driver is fit to be questioned," said DVG spokesperson Kathrin Nass said. "The police has started its investigation. At the moment, we can only say that we are working hard to clarify the facts."

"For us it appears that one train has run into the other," said Oliver Tittman, the head of the Duisburg fire department, on Tuesday. "That could be due to human error or technical problems."

Authorities expected to have results from their investigation in the coming days. Train services in Duisburg resumed as normal on Wednesday morning.

dv/msh (AFP, dpa)

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