Three people were injured when a high-speed German Intercity Express (ICE) train carrying 170 passengers derailed after hitting a herd of sheep in a tunnel near Fulda, German police said.
The three people suffering broken bones were taken to hospital while another 20 people with slight injuries including bruises and cuts were treated and released.
The train, which was travelling at around 200 km/h, was en route from Hamburg to Munich yesterday evening when it hit into the herd of sheep that had wandered into the 11 kilometre long tunnel near the central town of Fulda.
The first four of 12 carriages came off the track. The train came to a halt about 1 km later after hitting and killing the 20 sheep.
The driver of the train was not injured.
"It was a really large herd of sheep that had lost its way in the tunnel," said German federal police spokesman Reza Ahmari.
In 1998, 101 people were killed and 103 hurt when an ICE train derailed near the central town of Eschede on the same Munich-Hamburg route at over 200 km/hand crashed into a bridge that then collapsed. It was Germany's worst rail disaster in half a century.