Footage from the forest showed yellow and grey carriages lying on their sides while firefighters tried to reach the people inside. A passenger train with 100 aboard had left the rails near Riedlingen, in southwestern Baden-Wurttemberg, on Sunday evening, July 27, 2025. At least three people were killed and dozens hurt.
District fire chief Charlotte Ziller told reporters the dead included the train driver and an employee of Deutsche Bahn, the state-owned operator. Fifty people were injured, 25 of them seriously. The train was running from Sigmaringen to Ulm. Riedlingen lies roughly 158km (98 miles) west of Munich.
Deutsche Bahn confirmed several deaths and numerous injuries. Two carriages came off the track “for reasons yet unknown”, the company said, and traffic was halted along a 40km (25-mile) stretch of the route.
Rain as a possible cause
Severe storms had crossed the region earlier. Thomas Strobl, the state’s interior minister, said investigators are checking whether the rain played a part. “There have been heavy rains here, so it cannot be ruled out that the heavy rain and a related landslide accident may have been the cause,” he said. “However, this is currently the subject of ongoing investigations.”
The response
SWR, the local television station, reported that helicopters arrived soon after the crash to fly the injured to nearby hospitals, and emergency doctors were called in from those hospitals.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz offered condolences to the families of the dead in a social media post. He said he was in close contact with the interior and transport ministers and had asked them to “provide the emergency services with all the support they need.”
Deutsche Bahn chief executive Richard Lutz said he would go to the scene on Monday. He said the operator was deeply shocked and dismayed, and thanked emergency crews and volunteers. “My heartfelt sympathy and condolences go out to the relatives of the deceased. I wish the injured a quick and full recovery,” he added. DPA reported that the company had opened a free hotline for those affected and their relatives, with emergency chaplains and psychologists available to travelers and employees.
Background
German passengers regularly complain about outdated infrastructure, frequent delays and technical faults. The government has pledged to invest several hundred billion euros over the next few years, mainly to modernize it.
The country’s deadliest rail accident came in 1998, when a Deutsche Bahn high-speed train derailed at Eschede in Lower Saxony and 101 people died. In June 2022, a train left the tracks near a Bavarian Alpine resort, killing four and injuring dozens. Rail travel in Germany is still far safer than driving: 2,770 people died in road crashes there in 2024, according to the Federal Statistical Office.
