Germany train collision: As it happened

Heavy cranes will begin clearing the tracks on Tuesday, the train authorities confirmed.

"It will be difficult. How long it will take is hard to say," a spokesman said. 

Rolling stock will be cleared from the tracks and various parts of the trains will be dismantled.

"I doubt it will be weeks and weeks but a number of days," the spokesman added. 

A spokesman for one of the various companies operating the line says this was a 37km (23-mile) stretch of single track with several nearby deviation points where trains could pass each other. 

"So we have a collaboration of the various operators [here] ... so far we've never had any difficulties or problems." 

He said the signalling system was checked last week and there were "no problems".

It's the "blackest Shrove Tuesday in the region" Bavarian Chief of Police Robert Kopp says.

Here you can see a satellite map of the site - showing how the trains were difficult to access for the emergency services.

BBCCopyright: BBC

Bavarian Chief of Police Robert Kopp said it wasn't clear when news of the accident first emerged how many passengers were on board. He said it was only later that it became clear it was only about 150 passengers - because it is a holiday period.

"In that respect we are in a fortunate position because on a normal weekday it would have been a lot higher". 

Two people are still missing, he confirms. Specialists are helping the injured and bereaved. 

Minister Herrmann says there is "no sense" in trying to pre-empt the investigations and speculate on the cause of the crash.

"We will conclude our investigations comprehensively so we can safeguard staff and passengers. We need to make sure accidents like this don't happen again." 

He commended the emergency workers saying: "It is worth marking just how many competent and professional voluntary workers we have and how professionally they can care for the injured people." 

Mr Herrmann says the trains were scheduled to pass each other at another point on the line - "why they didn't, we have to investigate".

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann confirms that the accident site is "extremely cumbersome...  vehicles cannot access it, helicopters have had to be used instead". 

But he praises the work of emergency workers, saying they have mobilised every resource they have to get to the site and the injured as quickly as possible.

Two our of three data recorders have already been recovered from the trains, Mr Dobrindt says. "But we have to wait for the results of the investigation. I cannot currently speculate" on the cause of the crash. 

Minister Dobrindt says the fire service were on the scene three minutes after the emergency call was made.

He said he had heard from the scene that the rescue workers have been under a lot of physical and mental strain and are due to be replaced by fresh team of workers and investigators.

Federal Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt tells the news conference he has visited the crash site and "it's horrifying".

"It's shocking how the two trains have wedged into each other. One really drilled itself into the second train - the driver's cab of the second train has been entirely shattered. They must have had a head-on collision. The speed limit on the line was about 100 km/hr [62mph] - and the crash site is on a curve so the drivers must have had little visual eye contact, so it is assumed the crash took place without any braking."

Police, emergency services and German officials are now giving a press conference on the details of the crash. Watch it live at the top of this page.

More on the two missing people.

"We now have nine dead," says police spokesman Juergen Thalmeier, according to AFP. 

There are "two missing people, who are very likely still in the wreckage".

Federal Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt, speaking from the crash scene, has said his thoughts are with the family members of the dead and the injured. 

"We need to find out know what happened, if the cause of the crash was based on the technology or human failure," he said, according to Associated Press.

AFP news agency is reporting that along with the nine people confirmed dead in the collision, two people are missing according to police.

The police press conference has now been moved to 13:00 (12:00 GMT).

Police say a ninth person has been killed in the crash, according to a tweet from regional broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR24).

Local journalist Carina Zimniock said rescue teams were working in very difficult terrain. She spoke to the BBC as she was overlooking the crash site.