TERRIBLE FRENCH TRAIN DISASTER.

45 KILLED, 69 INJURED.

From Our Own Correspondent. Paris, Sunday.

A frightful railway disaster occurred at Houilles station, about 10 miles from Paris last night. Forty-five passengers were killed, with 69 injured. Most of the victims resided at Paris, Maisons Laffitte, and Mantes, and, so far as can be ascertained, there are no British passengers among the killed and injured.

The breaking of the couplings of a goods train running from Mantes to Paris led to the catastrophe. When the train was approaching Houilles, the driver discovered that it was not intact, several wagons having been left behind through the snapping of the couplings. He slowed down his train with the intention of stopping at Houilles to report what had happened. Meanwhile, the wagons left behind had reached an incline and, gaining in momentum, they rushed down this declivity at a terrific speed and crashed into the first part of the goods train. Several wagons were derailed and obstructed the up and down lines, and the signal system destroyed.

But a more awful shock was to come. A passenger train left the Gare Saint Lazare a few minutes after seven o’clock, bound for Mantes. It had to pass through Houilles and make its first stop at Maisons Laffitte, The train was crowded, the majority of the passengers being workers returning to their homes and people who had left Paris with the intention of spending Sunday in the country. The train was passing through Houilles station at the usual rate of speed. It could not be signalled, but the driver saw the derailment, applied his brakes, and shut off steam. It was too late. The train crashed into the overturned wagons, the engine scaling the debris and then turning on its side. A van and the two first carriages, both third class and packed with people, mounted the wreckage in turn, and a third carriage stuck on the roof of the second and was suspended in space. In the shock one of the carriages was precipitated on to the signal cabin, which collapsed on the signalman. He was killed. The carriages were reduced to matchwood, and from the inextricable mass of wood and iron poignant, shrieks were heard.