Police in Germany investigate deadly freight train derailment

Police in southern Germany were on Friday investigating the partial derailment of a Swiss freight train that left its driver dead.

The accident occurred on Thursday evening in the town of Auggen, near Germany's borders with France and Switzerland.

A 100-ton concrete slab fell onto the train tracks from a bridge, police said. The train collided with it and partially derailed.

The 51-year-old train driver was killed, while three of 10 lorry drivers who were in a carriage behind the locomotive were injured, according to police.

The train was transporting several lorries and was travelling from the German city of Freiburg to Italy, police said. One of the lorry drivers was wedged in and suffered serious injuries. The other two were slightly injured.

The bridge was due for demolition and preparatory work had already started, a police spokeswoman said on Friday. The bridge was scheduled to be demolished this weekend, according to the Deutsche Bahn railway company.

The train line, which goes from Freiburg to Basel in Switzerland, is expect to remain closed until Monday afternoon, Deutsche Bahn wrote on Twitter.