Children hit by train in Germany, one killed

STORY: Bild newspaper said the victims were dragged by a freight train for several hundred yards.

Emergency personel were called to the scene near a former freight yard at 1800 local time (1700GMT). Police searched the tracks with flashlights and drones.

"It's horrible. Children and trains and at such a young age, it's just horrible what happened here and one can only hope the parents will have the strength to overcome this great misfortune," Herbert Reul, the interior minister in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, told journalists at the scene.

"Why, how come, these are all questions that no one can yet answer and wouldn't solve anything," Reul said.