Three people were injured when a high-speed German Intercity Express (ICE) train carrying 170 passengers derailed after hitting a herd of sheep in a tunnel near Fulda, German police said on Sunday.

The three people suffering broken bones were taken to hospital while another 20 people with slight injuries including bruises and cuts were treated and released.

The train was travelling faster than 200 km (120 mph) per hour. It was en route from Hamburg to Munich when it hit into the herd of sheep that had wandered into the 11-km (7-mile) long tunnel near the central town of Fulda.

The ICE train, which can travel at speeds of up to 250 km (155 miles) per hour derailed late on Saturday, with the first four of 12 carriages coming off the track. It came to a halt about 1 km (0.6 miles) after hitting and killing the 20 sheep. The driver of the train was not injured.

"It was a really large herd of sheep that had lost its way in the tunnel," said German federal police spokesman Reza Ahmari. "The train collided with at least 20 sheep and derailed. It was travelling at more than 200 km per hour."

He said that traffic on the important north-south rail was being diverted and would cause considerable delays for several days.

In 1998, 101 people were killed and 103 hurt when an ICE train derailed near the central town of Eschede on the same Munich-Hamburg route at a speed of over 200 km per hour and crashed into a bridge that then collapsed. It was Germany's worst rail disaster in half a century. - Reuters