High tech German train crash kills 23

LATHEN, Germany, Sep 22 (Reuters) A high tech magnetic train smashed into a maintenance vehicle on a test run in northern Germany today, killing 23 people, authorities said.

The elevated Transrapid, one of the world's fastest trains, collided with a maintenance truck and its two-man crew at a speed of at least 200 km per hour on the track in the Emsland district of Germany near the Dutch border.

''We have found 23 dead, and there are 10 injured who will be taken care of in hospital, whose lives are not in danger,'' a police spokesman said.

Another official said the rescue operation was over.

The passengers were acquaintances of Transrapid workers and employees of utility group RWE. ZDF television said the impact of the crash made the bodies difficult to identify.

The train's operating authority, IABG, said initial findings suggested the crash had been the result of human error. It said it had found no evidence of any technical failure.

The crash occurred at around 10 am (1330 IST) on a 32-km figure-of-eight circuit built as a test facility for the train, which floats on a magnetic cushion.

STREWN DEBRIS Television pictures showed debris from the crash, including what appeared to be parts of the roof and upholstery from the interior of the train, strewn for around 300 metres (yards) along the sides of the elevated track.

Chancellor Angela Merkel travelled to the crash site.

The train, which rides on a track supported by concrete stilts around five metres above ground, was not derailed in the accident, officials said, but its height made rescue difficult.

The costly train, which set a speed record of 450 kph in 1993, was developed by Transrapid International, a joint venture between German industrial firms Siemens AG and ThyssenKrupp.

''I remain convinced that this is a safe travel technology,'' ThyssenKrupp Chief Executive Ekkehard Schulz told ZDF.

Travelling at three times the speeds of normal steel-wheel trains, the ''mag-lev'' Transrapid floats on a magnetic cushion one cm (half an inch) above the track. It has no fuel source on board and its makers have said that it cannot derail.

A generation of German engineers have been testing the sleek white train, which has the potential to drastically reduce journey times, since the late 1960s.

Despite numerous proposals for its use across the world, the only train of its kind in commercial use is as a shuttle from the centre of the Chinese city of Shanghai to its airport.

Shares in Siemens and ThyssenKrupp fell on the news, with the former closing down 1.02 per cent at 66.87 euros and Thyssen down 0.99 per cent to 26.12 euros. The German benchmark DAX <.gdaxi> fell 1.32 per cent.

Reuters DKS VP0025