Containers lie all over the site, wagons have been pushed into each other and jumped off the tracks.

A police spokesman from Bochum said that a serious train accident on a private company premises in Herne caused "immense damage to property" on Friday night.

Nobody was injured, but according to the operations manager of the container terminal, the difficult clean-up and rescue work will probably take a long time.

A rescue train from Deutsche Bahn (DB Netz) is already on site, another with a crane weighing around 100 tons should arrive later in the day, according to the managing director of the affected Wanne-Herner Eisenbahn und Hafen GmbH (WHE), Mirko Strauss .

"I can't rule out the possibility of damage in the low millions," Strauss told the German Press Agency.

When driving onto the premises of the container terminal, a train from the logistics company WHE drove onto the freight wagons that were standing there, reported terminal manager Dirk Kapeller to the dpa on Friday morning.

The impact of the train on the wagons pushed them into each other and tipped them off the tracks.

The engine driver was able to jump off his engine in time so that nobody was injured.

"First of all, we're glad that nothing happened to anyone, nobody was injured," said Strauss.

He confirmed that no dangerous goods were transported on the train, which was more than 600 meters long.

Cause still unclear

Strauss did not want to speculate about the cause of the accident.

According to the terminal manager, Kapeller, there are many indications of a technical defect.

The train probably had no braking effect.

According to his information, eight cars are almost completely destroyed.

In addition, two crane tracks and several tracks were damaged.

In the terminal, trains or wagons are usually loaded with the help of two large cranes.

Journalists and photographers were no longer allowed onto the cordoned-off area in the morning.

Since it is private property and nobody was injured, the police, informed by the Herner fire brigade at around 2.40 a.m., withdrew after inspecting the scene of the accident.

According to Strauss, the experts would now do their job to determine the exact cause of the accident and the extent of the damage.

The Occupational Health and Safety Office is also involved in the investigations.