The derailment of a passenger train yesterday, Friday night, in northwestern France resulted in 44 people being injured, including a young woman who is in "very serious condition," according to local authorities.
The derailment of the regional train, which was traveling between the cities of Rouen and Caen in Normandy, occurred around 7:45 p.m. (local time; 8:45 p.m. Cyprus time), near the town of Cléon, and triggered a major emergency response—130 firefighters, five medical teams, and 80 vehicles were deployed.
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An Agence France-Presse photojournalist at the scene saw numerous ambulances and a vehicle escorted by police transporting passengers wrapped in emergency blankets.
An 18-year-old female passenger was “transported in very serious condition” by helicopter to a hospital, while 43 of her fellow passengers suffered injuries of varying severity, ranging from moderate to serious, explained the prosecutor of Rouen, Sébastien Gallois.
The judicial police are conducting an investigation, he added.
JUST IN: At least 20 injured after a Rouen-Caen train carrying more than 150 passengers derailed near Cléon in Normandy, France pic.twitter.com/ve7aFmWIRX
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The blood alcohol tests and tests for the use of pharmaceuticals or narcotics administered to the driver of the regional train all came back “negative,” the prosecutor noted.
The causes of the train accident were not clear as of late last night. “The investigation will be a long one,” Deputy Prosecutor Marie-Valérie Albert emphasized during a press conference.
The French national railway company, the SNCF, promised “complete transparency” in its cooperation with the investigation.
Initially, last night, Transportation Minister Philippe Tabaro reported “about twenty injured” among the train’s 180 passengers.
Passengers, in a “state of shock,” said the train began to “shake,” as if the engineer had applied the emergency brakes, before the cars began to derail, according to reports by French media outlets, including BFMTV and ici Normandie.
Source: APE-MPE
