Key takeaways:
- The train was traveling from Rouen to Caen with 186 passengers when it derailed Friday evening near Cléon.
- Forty-four people were injured, including an 18-year-old woman who was airlifted to Rouen University Hospital.
- Prosecutor Sébastien Gallois said a fragment of rail was found on the tracks, but investigators have not determined why it was there.
French investigators are examining whether a “malicious act” caused a passenger train to derail in Normandy, injuring 44 people, after a fragment of rail was found on the tracks.
The regional train was carrying 186 passengers from Rouen to Caen when it came off the rails Friday evening near Cléon, just south of Rouen. One carriage tipped onto its side and four others left the tracks, according to authorities cited by CBS News.
An 18-year-old woman was among the injured and was evacuated by helicopter to Rouen University Hospital. The BBC reported that she was airlifted in critical condition. In all, 44 people were treated for injuries.
Prosecutor Sébastien Gallois said Saturday that a piece, or fragment, of rail had been found on the track and that investigators had not yet determined why it was there.
“The reasons for its presence are unknown and will have to be determined by the investigation,” Gallois said, according to Agence France-Presse.
A spokeswoman for the French national police communications service, SICOP, told The Associated Press that the piece of rail found on the track was “probably” linked to the derailment. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to be publicly named under police policy.
Officials are working to determine whether the derailment was accidental or the result of sabotage. Police said the prosecutor’s office remained cautious about drawing conclusions.
Emergency crews arrived near Cléon shortly before 20:00 local time, or 18:00 GMT, the BBC reported. About 140 firefighters and other emergency personnel were deployed to the scene.
Passengers described a sudden and violent derailment. “Suddenly there were a few jolts, and then after about three seconds it got stronger and stronger,” a passenger identified as Louis told ICI Normandie radio. “I couldn’t stay in my seat anymore. The windows partially shattered, the stones from the track came into the carriage. It was really shocking. I’m still shaking.”
Cléon Mayor Mélanie Delacour also said passengers were shaken by the crash.
“The windows of the carriages that remained upright shattered, and because of the train’s speed, stones flew into the carriages,” she told AFP. She said the victims were “in a state of shock.”
The Rouen prosecutor’s office said the train driver tested negative for drugs and alcohol, according to the BBC.
France has had several major rail disasters in recent years. In July 2013, a derailment at Brétigny-sur-Orge, south of Paris, killed seven people. In November 2015, a high-speed TGV test train derailed at Eckwersheim, near Strasbourg, killing 11. More recently, a crash involving two high-speed trains at Adamuz in southern Spain killed 46 people and injured more than 100 in January, according to the Andalusian regional government.
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