Explosive gas pumped away after goods train crash in Germany

The fire brigade began pumping explosive propane gas out of train carriages on Sunday, three days after a collision between two goods trains on a central rail route in northern Germany, reported dpa.

Special pumps were set up for this purpose on Saturday, said Carsten Schaffhauser, spokesperson for the local fire brigade in the Gifhorn district of Lower Saxony, adding that pumping the gas out of the four overturned tanker carriages would take days.

Because the carriages are lying on their sides, only about half of the contents can be extracted. Therefore, the most recent plan had been to burn off the remaining contents in a controlled manner.

However, as this would take a long time, it is now being examined whether the half-empty tankers can be raised again with the help of lifting bags and cranes. The remaining gas could then be pumped out.

Work at the accident site was delayed on Saturday evening when a gas cloud formed at the leaking carriage, Schaffhauser said. The emergency services were evacuated from the danger zone for safety reasons. Explosion-proof fans were used to create artificial wind.

Early on Thursday morning, a goods train on the important east-west train line had stopped at a signal near the small town of Leiferde near Gifhorn.

Another goods train following it collided with it, for as yet unknown reasons. Four carriages overturned and the overhead line was also damaged.

The rear-ended train consisted of 25 tanker wagons filled with propane gas. The hydrocarbon is highly flammable - the risk of explosions must therefore be taken into account during recovery. Both goods trains were from private companies.