The nine-year-old boy, who was seriously injured in the accident on a railway line in the Ruhr area, is "currently no longer in acute danger" after an operation. A police spokesman said on Friday the German Press Agency in Recklinghausen. A freight train hit two boys on Thursday evening. The ten-year-old was killed and the nine-year-old seriously injured. There is no evidence of other injuries, said the police spokesman.

"It's terrible what happened there," said NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) at the scene of the accident. "One can only hope that there are many people here to help the parents get over this tragedy." NRW SPD leader Thomas Kutschaty wrote on Twitter on Friday: "What terrible news

The police now want to clarify why the children were on the tracks and what they were doing there. Witnesses were called to come forward. Of particular interest is whether there might have been more children on the tracks before the accident.

Drone should provide overview images

On Friday, the criminal police continued the investigation. Drones should provide important overview images of the area, said a police spokesman. "We're using the fact that it's dry and light now." In particular, the parked freight train, which was still on the tracks on Friday, should be recorded from above, according to the police.

The accident was reported to the emergency services shortly after 6 p.m. on Thursday. The police initially held back with more information, possibly not all relatives were initially informed. The first media reports said that a group of people had been caught and dragged along several hundred meters.

According to the fire department, 35 firefighters and rescue workers were deployed. "We searched the track bed," said a spokesman for the fire department. The accident site is near a former freight yard. Recklinghausen is located in the northern Ruhr area.

Train traffic was still blocked on the route in the morning. As the police spokesman said, it was still unclear exactly where the collision occurred.