Thirty-five people were injured, four of them seriously, when a passenger train collided with a freight train near Mannheim station in southern Germany.

The accident happened around 9pm on Friday and led to the derailment of five carriages of the passenger train, which was taking about 250 people between Graz in Austria and the German city of Saarbrueken near the French border.

Train operator Deutsche Bahn said 14 of the 35 people injured were hospitalised, including four in a serious condition.

Earlier in the evening the rail company said evacuation of the train had been completed but Mannheim station remained closed.

The goods train involved in the crash belonged to the ERS Railways group and was travelling to Hungary.