The German rail authorities are temporarily withdrawing most of the country'sfleet of one hundred high-speed Intercity Express trains following Wednesday's train disaster.

Sixty of the trains will undergo urgent inspections, while about forty newer versions will remain in service.

Investigators are still trying to establish why the train crashed into a road bridge near Hanover in northern Germany, killing more than ninety people.

Officials say they've found damage to the railway line nearly six kilometres before the place of impact.

Some reports suggest a broken wheel on the front carriage may have caused a derailment as the train was travelling at two-hundred kilometres an hour.

Work is still continuing to remove the last of the bodies from the train wreckage.Hundreds of residents from the village (of Eschede) close to the crash scene have attended a memorial service for the victims of the crash.