Lathen (Germany), Sep 23 (DPA) A magnetic levitation train slammed into a maintenance wagon Friday at 170 km an hour, killing 23 people and injuring 10 others in one of Germany's worst rail accidents.

The driverless two-coach train was racing along an elevated monorail test track in northern Germany when it crashed, slicing off part of the roof and spewing debris four metres down to the ground.

Operators of the transrapid train and prosecutors in Osnabrueck city said they suspected human error. By late Friday, police said all victims had been recovered.

Wreckage and victims' clothing were strewn along a 400-metre stretch of the track, with the damaged train perched precariously overhead.

Passengers aboard the ill-fated train were family members and friends of employees involved in maintaining the track, officials said.

Private groups often take pleasure trips, which can reach speeds of 450 kilometres an hour.

Germany has heavily promoted the transrapid as a high-tech transport solution. Maglev trains float on a magnetic field, propelled by a linear induction motor and kept on track by powerful magnets in the monorail.

"This accident would not have been possible if all regulations had been followed," said a senior official.

It was Germany's deadliest railway crash since a high-speed InterCityExpress passenger train crashed into a bridge support in the town of Eschede in 1998, killing 101 people in the nation's worst train wreck.

The maglev was developed by German firms Siemens and ThyssenKrupp in the 1980s. The German test track, in operation since 1984, is the world's longest.