BAD AIBLING, GERMANY // Two commuter trains crashed head-on in southern Germany on Tuesday, killing at least 10 people and injuring more than 150, in one of the country’s deadliest rail accidents in years.
Hundreds of rescuers scoured for more passengers who were trapped in the mangled wreckage in a wooded area near Bad Aibling, a spa town about 60 kilometres south-east of Munich.
At least two carriages from one train were overturned, while the front of the other was crushed. Blue, yellow and silver metal debris was strewn around the crash site next to a river in the southern state of Bavaria.
Police said 10 people were killed in total and 18 seriously injured. One person was still missing, likely trapped in the wreckage.
The two train drivers and two conductors were among those killed, local broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk reported.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed shock at the news.
“I am dismayed and saddened by the serious train accident this morning at Bad Aibling,” she said. Transport minister Alexander Dobrindt said the rail track was fitted with an automatic braking system aimed at preventing such crashes, and that investigators centred on whether there had been “a technical problem or human error”.
“One train was jammed into the other and the carriage of the second train was completely torn apart,” he said.
Three black boxes on the trains should help shed light on the accident, he said, adding that two had already been recovered, and the third should be found in the course of the day.
The trains collided at high speed, and both drivers probably did not see each other until the last minute because the crash happened on a curve, said Mr Dobrindt.
“At the moment we will have to wait [for the result of the investigation], everything else is speculation, and would be unhelpful and inappropriate,” he said.
A passenger, Patrick B, told local radio Rosenheim 24 that shortly after leaving the station of Kolbermoor, “the train suddenly braked, there was a loud noise and the light went out”.
He said he “heard people shouting for help everywhere” and together with a young man, he opened the carriage door using the emergency system.
“We led passengers onto a slope, and only one man with a broken leg could not be helped out. Shortly after, the first emergency workers arrived.”
Some 700 firefighters, emergency services workers and police officers were deployed in the rescue operation, which was complicated because the forest crash site was difficult to access.
Rescuers focused on the impact area of the trains, using electric saws to cut through the mangled wreckage.
Underlining the difficulty of the emergency operation, mountain rescuer Joerg Becker told NTV: “The terrain is not only difficult to access but the large number of injured also requires a massive coordination effort between so many rescue and aid groups.”
About a dozen helicopters were also deployed, with television footage showing them waiting in a clearing outside the forest, from where rescuers were emerging with stretchers carrying the injured.
“The tragic accident occurred on the single-track route between Rosenheim and Holzkirchen this morning shortly after 7.00am (0600 GMT),” regional rail company Meridian, a subsidiary of the French group Transdev, said.
Christian Schreyer, chief executive of Transdev, said: “We are deeply shocked and stunned that something like this could have happened. Our thoughts are with the victims and families of the victims”.
The accident is believed to be Germany’s first fatal train crash since April 2012, when three people were killed and 13 injured in a collision between two regional trains in the western city of Offenbach.
The country’s deadliest post-war accident happened in 1998, when a high-speed ICE train linking Munich and Hamburg derailed in the northern town of Eschede, killing 101 people and injuring 88.
* Agence France-Presse
RESULT
Bayern Munich 3 Chelsea 2
Bayern: Rafinha (6'), Muller (12', 27')
Chelsea: Alonso (45' 3), Batshuayi (85')
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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