After the accident on a railway line in Recklinghausen with one child killed and one seriously injured, the police continued their investigations into the cause of the accident. The emergency services used drones to take overview pictures of the accident site on Friday morning.

A freight train hit two boys aged ten and nine in the Ruhr area city on Thursday evening. The older boy died, according to the police, the younger boy was no longer in mortal danger after an operation on Friday night. There is currently no evidence of further injuries, said a police spokesman on Friday.

The train driver was not physically injured

North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) expressed his condolences to the relatives of the two underage victims. "Anyone who has children of their own may have an idea of ​​how bad it must be when their own child is taken from their lives," he said in Düsseldorf.

His thoughts are with the family of the ten-year-old boy who died, as well as with the nine-year-old, who according to his information has a good chance of surviving the accident, said Wüst. "We hope for a full and speedy recovery." The head of government also thanked the emergency services and rescue workers as well as the pastors who had done important work on site during the "depressing accident".

The railway line between Gladbeck-West and Recklinghausen main station was released again for regional traffic in the morning. The S9 S-Bahn line had been interrupted since the evening due to the accident, according to Deutsche Bahn (DB) long-distance traffic was not affected.

The company DB Regio canceled an event planned for Friday at short notice because of the accident. On the occasion of the anniversary session "200 Years of Cologne Carnival", the special train "Carnival 2023" was supposed to be presented.

The driver of the freight train was not physically injured in the accident, a police spokesman said on Friday near the scene of the accident. However, his mental state is "corresponding to the terrible events". He was under the impression of the serious accident and was immediately looked after by emergency chaplains on Thursday evening. The spokesman did not provide any personal information. The freight train was not a DB train.

Mourning across the country over this tragedy

The ten-year-old boy is expected to have an autopsy on Monday, the police spokesman said. He did not provide any further information about the children and their families. It is also not yet possible to comment on the subject of a funeral service or funeral.

"It's terrible what happened there," said NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) on Thursday evening 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 accident was reported to the emergency services shortly after 6 p.m. on Thursday. 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.