DEADLY TRAIN CRASH IN PARIS
A train packed with passengers derails and crashes into a station, killing 6 on a major holiday weekend.
BRETIGNY-SUR-ORGE, France — A train carrying hundreds of passengers derailed and crashed into a station outside Paris on Friday on the eve of a major holiday weekend. At least six people were killed and dozens were injured, including nine who are in critical condition, the Interior Ministry said.
The crash at Bretignysur- Orge station was the deadliest in France in years, and President Francois Hollande rushed to the scene after abandoning plans in the capital.
Some of the train cars slid toward the station, crushing part of the metallic roof over the platform. Images from the site on French television and on Twitter showed gnarled metal and shards on the platform, and debris from the crash clogging the stairwell leading beneath the platform.
Some 300 firefighters, 20 medical teams and eight helicopters were deployed to get survivors out of the wreck, according to the Interior Ministry.
Hollande praised “the mobilization of the emergency services,” and reached out in “solidarity with the victims’ families.” He added that an inquiry has been launched to determine the cause of the accident, which left around 190 people injured or in treatment for shock.
Ben Khelifa, a 20-year- old accounting apprentice whose commuter train was on the adjacent track, told The Associated Press that the derailed train “was unrecognizable.
“There was nothing but metal scraps,” he said. “The train just collapsed, just like that, on its side... There was blood.”
He added that he was one of a number of passengers in the adjacent train that went to help pull trapped survivors out of the wreckage. “People were screaming, people were asking where their children were,” he said.
It was unclear whether all the casualties were inside the train, or whether some had been on the platform, or how fast the train was traveling.