Church services held near site of German maglev train crash

Sep 24, 2006, 12:33 GMT

Lathen, Germany - Catholic and Lutheran pastors led prayers Sunday for the 23 people killed and 10 injured in a high-speed rail crash in northern Germany two days previously.

Ceremonies took place close to the site of Friday's collision between a futuristic Transrapid train and a track-maintenance vehicle on a test track.

Hundreds of local people, many traumatized by the vision of the crash destruction, showed up at the weekly services in the small town of Lathen in north-west Germany.

'We have drawn together, and in this chill of death and sadness, no one should be allowed to feel alone,' said Catholic priest Gerhard Ortmann. An ecumenical memorial service is planned in Lathen Wednesday.

Prosecutors studying the loss of the prototype magnetic-levitation (maglev) train say control room staff at the test track ought to have known from a log, global positioning data or by looking out the window that the elevated track was not clear when the train left.

Police have not yet interviewed the two control-room staff, who are reported to be psychologically at a low ebb.

The area's Catholic bishop, Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrueck, said Pope Benedict XVI had sent a message of condolence to the bereaved.

In the German capital Berlin, Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee was set to meet Sunday afternoon with senior executives of the Transrapid consortium, composed of major engineering companies Siemens and ThyssenKrupp, to discuss the future of the train project.

The disaster has been seen in the German media as a setback to plans to build a second test track near Munich for public use.