One person died and a dozen were injured when a train derailed Monday outside of Vienna, according to rescue services.

Rescuers rushed to the accident at Muenchendorf, just south of Vienna, according to Andreas Zenker of the Red Cross of Lower Austria.

"One person died, three have been seriously injured and nine lightly injured," Zenker told AFP, adding about 100 people were riding the train when the accident occurred in the evening rush hour.

"Two waggons derailed for yet unknown reasons," he said, adding that one crashed into an embankment while another tipped over into a field next to the tracks.

"Serious train accident at Muenchendorf," the emergency services of Lower Austria wrote on Facebook.

"According to initial information, there are numerous injuries, several emergency helicopters and a large contingent of rescue workers are on duty at the moment!"

A spokesman for Austrian rail operator OeBB said the train in the accident did not belong to OeBB but to Raaberbahn, a private train company connecting Austria and neighbouring Hungary.

No Raaberbahn representative could immediately be reached by AFP.

Deadly train accidents are rare in the Alpine EU member of nine million people.

In April 2018, 54 people were treated for injuries after two train carriages collided at a station in the Austrian city of Salzburg.

Earlier that year in February, one person died and 22 were injured when two passenger trains collided in central Austria.