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Train crash near Paris leaves dozens injured

Oliver Gee
Oliver Gee - [email protected]
Train crash near Paris leaves dozens injured
The lorry was transporting tractors when the train hit. Photo: AFP

UPDATED: A passenger train hit a lorry at a level crossing in the town of Nangis to the south-east of Paris on Tuesday morning, leaving 30 people injured, including two seriously, according to the latest reports.

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The incident occurred near the train station at Nangis, south east of the capital, at around 8.45am on Tuesday.

The train, which was carrying 350 passengers to Belfort from Paris, crashed into a lorry that had stopped for unknown reasons at a level crossing near the station. 

The impact was so severe that five carriages of the train were derailed.


(Emergency crews at the scene in Nangis. Photo: AFP)

Firefighters, police, and ambulances were sent to the scene.

The latest reports say  that around 30 people were injured in the accident, two of them seriously.

According to reports a fireman who was at the scene helped avoid what could have been a disaster by clearing commuters from the station's platform.

The SNCF said all automatic rail signals were working correctly and an investigation would be carried out to determine the exact circumstances of the accident.

"We escaped a catastrophe which could have been much worse," said local government official Michel Billout.

Passengers took to social media to share images images from the crash, which show the train's derailment and debris on a nearby platform.


(Nangis, south east of Paris. Photo: Google Maps)

In July 2013 seven people were killed and 200 injured when a train derailed at the station in Bretigny-sur-Orge. 

The accident was the most serious rail crash in France since the 1988 crash at Gare de Lyon in which 56 people were killed. 

Initial investigations said it was caused by the faulty track, part of which had come loose.

 

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