Four teens, five adults die in car crashes

Four teenage boys and a teenage girl were driving in heavy rain through a Teutoburg forest in Lower Saxony on Wednesday night, when their car hit an oncoming van.

Three men aged between 18 and 19 died at the scene of the accident, which saw their car ripped in half. A 17-year-old died on the way to the hospital. One passenger, a 16-year-old girl, survived the accident but remains in hospital with serious injuries.

A second accident on Thursday morning in Hesse, central Germany, left at least five people dead. A car and a truck hit each other head-on at around 8am and, police said, the impact was so heavy that officers could not identify how many passengers were in the car.

Initial investigations suggest that the driver of a red BMW caused the collision by attempting a risky overtake move. He fled the scene as the two other vehicles smashed into each other and police are looking for him.

Four of the passengers died in the wreck, another was freed but died in hospital shortly after.

DPA/The Local/jcw