AT LEAST ONE person has died and more than 10 people were injured when two commuter trains collided near Munich in southern Germany, police said.

The cause of the crash at around 16:40 pm local time (15:40 Irish time) was not yet clear.

“One person died and there are injured people — in the double-digit range,” a Munich police spokesman told AFP.

Images in local media showed passengers standing next to the track after the collision, with at least one partially derailed carriage visible.

The crash occurred near the S-Bahn urban rail station of Ebenhausen-Schaeftlarn, southwest of Munich, with the two commuter trains apparently slamming into each other head-on.

More than 200 rescue workers and police were at the scene by the early evening, the police spokesman said.

One injured person was initially trapped inside a carriage but was later freed, he added.

Germany’s top-selling Bild newspaper had earlier reported that a train driver was trapped in the mangled wreckage.

The stretch of track in Germany’s Bavaria region has been closed with rail replacement bus services running, Munich police said.

Passengers on board the trains told the Merkur newspaper that they felt a loud bang and were thrown forward.

According to local radio, two S-Bahn trains nearly collided in the same area last August, but both drivers were able to brake in time.

© AFP 2022