In the present study we examined the cytogenetic effects of 177 MeV/u Fe-ions (LET = 335 keV/) and 4.1 MeV/u Cr-ions (LET = 3160 keV/) in human lymphocytes under exposure conditions that result on average in one particle hit per cell nucleus. In non-cycling (G0-phase) lymphocytes the induction and the repair of excess fragments was measured by means of the premature chromosome condensation (PCC) technique and the distribution of breaks among cells was analysed. The PCC-data were further compared with those reported recently for stimulated lymphocytes at the first post-irradiation mitosis. Our experiments show that a single nuclear traversal by a Fe-ion produced more initial chromatin breakage than one Cr-ion, but after 24 h of repair the number of excess fragments/cell was similar for both ion species. All distributions of aberrations were overdispersed. For low energy Cr-ions, where the track radius is smaller than the radius of the cell nucleus, the data could be well described by a Neyman type A distribution. In contrast, the data obtained for high energy Fe-ions were fitted with a convoluted Poisson–Neyman distribution to account for the fact that the dose is deposited not only in the cell actually traversed but also in neighbouring cells. By applying metaphase analysis a different picture emerged with respect to the aberration yield, i.e. more aberrations were detected in cells exposed to Fe-ions than in those irradiated with Cr-ions. Yet, as observed for non-cycling lymphocytes all aberration distributions generated for metaphase cells were overdispersed. The obtained results are discussed with respect to differences in particle track structure. Additionally, the impact of confounding factors such as apoptosis that affect the number of aberrations expressed in a cell population is addressed.