At least four people were killed and dozens were injured on Friday when a train derailed near a Bavarian Alpine resort in southern Germany, AFP reported.

Several carriages of the red-colored local train were lying on their sides on a grassy area next to a highway, the report said.

Rescuers stood on the top-facing side of the carriages, using ladders to climb into the wagons to reach trapped passengers.

"In the serious train accident, as of 3:32 pm (1532 GMT), four people were fatally injured," said police in a statement quoted by AFP.

"Around 30 passengers were injured, 15 of them so seriously that they have had to be admitted to nearby hospitals," they said, adding that a huge rescue operation was underway.

Stefan Sonntag of Upper Bavaria's police force said the regional train was "very crowded and many people were using it, hence the high number of injured".

The train had just left Garmisch-Partenkirchen for Munich, when the accident took place in the Burgrain district of the resort town, just past midday.

German rail operator Deutsche Bahn was not yet able to provide a reason for the accident.

Germany's deadliest rail accident happened in 1998 when a high-speed train operated by state-owned Deutsche Bahn derailed in Eschede in Lower Saxony, killing 101 people.

The most recent fatal crash took place on February 14, when one person was killed and 14 others hurt in a collision between two local trains near Munich.

In 2017, a passenger train and a stationary freight train collided near the western city of Duesseldorf, injuring 41 people.

(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)