ESCHEDE, Germany (CNN) -- German authorities now say at least 100 bodies have been pulled from the wreckage of a high-speed passenger train that derailed near the northern town of Celle Wednesday morning. As many as 300 people may be injured from Germany's deadliest train accident in over 20 years.

Rescuers and emergency teams said the InterCity Express (ICE) train, en route from Hanover to the port city of Hamburg, was traveling about 200 km/h (125 mph) when it crashed into a road bridge in the small village of Eschede.

The cause of the accident, which occurred just before 11 a.m., remained unclear but police spokesman Joachim Lindenberg said it appeared that the train hit the overpass, collapsing it and sending a car parked on the overpass onto the tracks.

The car belonged to a rail employee who was working along the tracks, Lindenberg told German television. He said anyone that close to the accident could not have survived.

Earlier reports, based on witness accounts to authorities, suggested that the car had plunged from the overpass into the train, causing it to derail.

Rescuers and emergency teams said the InterCity Express (ICE) train, en route from Hanover to the port city of Hamburg, was traveling about 200 km/h (125 mph) when it crashed into a car that apparently had fallen onto the rail tracks in the small village of Eschede.

The nose of the train cleared the bridge, while the other coaches were telescoped into one another as the train slammed into the bridge, which collapsed and fell onto the train wreck.

Fire, police and army rescue services were on hand, using heavy gear to free the victims. Helicopters and ambulances rushed the injured to hospitals.

Shredded coaches and splintered glass covered the scene and luggage was piled next to the wreckage as rescue workers collected the dead, laying out the covered bodies on stretchers in a grassy field near the tracks.

The exact number of deaths and injured was still unclear several hours after the accident, as was the number of people aboard the train. Some estimates put the number of passengers as high as 350.

Federal Transport Minister Matthias Wissmann and German railway executives rushed to the scene.

The accident was the worst on Germany's premier high-speed ICE line, which was inaugurated in 1991. The modern high-tech trains transport 65,000 passengers daily and they connect all major German cities.

Germany's last serious train accident came in 1975, when 41 people were killed in the head-on collision of two express trains in Bavaria.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.