Several people have died in a head-on crash between two trains in southern Germany, which police have described as the "biggest accident" in the region in years.

Germany is well-known for the quality and efficiency of its train services, but the country has witnessed a number of tragic rail disasters in recent times.

Eschede

In 1998 a high-speed ICE train travelling from Munich to Hamburg derailed in the village of Eschede, Lower Saxony.

A hundred and one people died and around 100 were injured.

It remains Germany's worst rail accident to date.

Lathen

Another disaster also happened in the same region in 2006 when a high-tech magnetic train crashed into a maintenance wagon on a test run at a speed of at least 200 km per hour (120 miles per hour).

Twenty-three people were killed and a further 10 were injured in the accident in Lathen.

Hordorf

The most recent train crash to result in fatalities was in 2011 when a passenger train and a cargo train collided in heavy fog on a single-line track near Hordorf.

The passenger train derailed and was catapulted into a nearby field killing ten people and seriously injuring 43.

German rail disasters since 1990: