German police say a 71-year-old man and his 67-year-old wife were killed by a train late Saturday after trying to take a shortcut across the tracks.

Police in the southwestern city of Reutlingen said Sunday that the couple had disembarked from a regional train at a suburban stop and wanted to get to their home nearby.

The pair illegally crossed the tracks behind their train and they were fatally struck by a special service going the other way. Nobody else was injured.