French police are investigating suspected sabotage after a train derailment in northern France injured 44 people, one of whom remains in critical condition.
The train, carrying 186 passengers, derailed between Rouen and Caen at about 7.45pm local time on Friday. One carriage overturned entirely during the crash.
The incident happened near a Renault factory in Cléon, Normandy, where the train struck what investigators described as a “massive section of rail” placed on the line.
Police have made the possibility of a deliberate act their leading avenue of inquiry after recovering the rail fragment, which is believed to have weighed between 250kg and 300kg.
Prosecutor Sebastien Gallois said: “The reasons for its presence are unknown and will have to be determined by the investigation.”
Passengers were left in a “state of shock” after the impact forced one carriage to flip over and sent four others off the tracks.
The maximum permitted speed on that stretch of railway is 120 kilometres per hour. Alcohol and drug tests carried out on the driver after the derailment were negative.
Emergency officials launched a mass-casualty operation, sending 130 firefighters, five medical teams and 80 vehicles to the crash site.
Pictured: Investigators stayed at the site on Saturday as French police said suspected sabotage had become their main line of inquiry.
Pictured: A large rail fragment near the derailment site, where 44 passengers were injured on Friday night.
French police suspect a malicious act was behind the incident. Herve Morin, president of the Normandy region, said: ‘The section of rail did not just end up on the tracks like that, given that a train had passed an hour earlier and no maintenance work had been carried out in the meantime.’
An 18-year-old girl was airlifted to Rouen University Hospital ‘in a critical condition’, while the other passengers were taken to Cleon Town Hall.
On Saturday, the 18-year-old was no longer in critical condition, but remained hospitalised. Railway staff and investigators could still be seen working around the train as they investigated the scene.
Herve Morin, president of the Normandy region, said: ‘The most likely scenario at this stage is that this was not simply a malicious act, but one that can be described as criminal.
‘The locomotive flipped over, meaning the end that had been heading towards Caen ended up facing Rouen, such was the force of the impact.’
He added: ‘The section of rail did not just end up on the tracks like that, given that a train had passed an hour earlier and no maintenance work had been carried out in the meantime.’
Cleon’s mayor, Melanie Delacour, said the victims were ‘in a state of shock.’
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She said: ‘The windows of the carriages that remained upright shattered, and because of the train’s speed, stones flew into the carriages.’
She added that some victims had told her they would never take the train again.
Melanie Delacour, the mayor of Cleon, said the victims were in ‘a state of shock’
Pictured: The scene in Cleon, Normandy, last night after one carriage was overturned and four others were derailed after hitting an object on the tracks
Rescue members work at the site after a train carrying 180 passengers derailed between the cities of Rouen and Caen in northern France
‘It is a tragedy that could have turned into a disaster on a very large scale,’ Ms Delacour added.
One of the passengers said the accident was ‘really shocking.’
Louis, 24, who was onboard the train, told local news outlet Ici he was still shaking after the ordeal.
He said: ‘All of a sudden there were several jerks. At first I thought it was normal, but after two or three seconds, they got stronger and stronger. I was shaken so much I couldn’t stay in my seat anymore, I tried to hold onto the seat in front.
‘We started to derail, the windows partially shattered, especially at the front of the carriage. Stones from the track flew everywhere in the carriage. There was broken glass everywhere. It was really quite shocking, I’m still shaking.’
Footage posted to social media showed helicopters hovering above the scene.
SNCF Reseau, the infrastructure manager which controls the French rail network, initially said that traffic on the line had been suspended and power to the tracks cut to allow emergency services to operate.
According to SNCF, the accident caused ‘major disruptions’ to rail traffic between Rouen and Caen and between Caen and Le Havre in both directions.
A spokesperson for SNCF Reseau said on Saturday that services had resumed.
They said the train will only be lifted off the line once the public prosecutor allows it, with investigations into the cause of the derailment remaining ongoing.
SNCF said that it would offer ‘full cooperation in complete transparency’ to the inquiry.