A train in the French Alps derailed on Saturday as a falling rock crashed into one of its cars, sending it over the edge of a mountain slope. Two people were killed, among them a Russian citizen, officials said.
Among the dead were a 49-year-old Russian woman and an
82-year-old French woman living in the Alps region, local
prosecutor Stephane Kellenberger said, as cited by AFP. She added
that 34 people had been on board the train.
The Russian tourist was traveling with her husband, who was also
injured in the accident, the consul of Russia’s diplomatic
mission in Marseilles, Daniil Boltaks, told ITAR-TASS by phone.
The husband’s injuries are not serious, though the man is in deep
shock, Boltaks said, adding that the tourist is being treated in
a hospital in Nice. The couple was traveling on their own,
without a tour. The identities of the injured have not been
confirmed. The Russian Embassy in France said the dead woman is
from Moscow, ITAR-TASS reported.
There are conflicting reports on the number of those injured,
varying from five to nine people. One person is reportedly
seriously hurt.
The two-carriage train, traveling from the coastal city of Nice,
was en route to the town of Digne-les-Bains - the capital of the
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department - when the accident happened.
The train is said to have derailed at around 11:00 a.m. local
time between the communes (a level of administrative division in
France) of Annet and Saint-Benoit.
"An enormous rock broke off from the mountain and hit the
side of the train with extreme force," said Charbel Aboud,
deputy prefect for the region, adding it may have weighed as much
as 20 tonnes, Reuters reported.
"When the train passed, a landslide occurred on the rails and
caused its derailment," said Jean-Yves Petit, vice president
of the regional authority in charge of transport. The rock then
fell thirty feet below, taking down trees in its path.
"It was as if the boulder fell from the sky, like in an earthquake," Jean-Jacques Messaoud, who was aboard the train when the accident happened, told France 24.
A total of 110 firefighters and 32 vehicles, as well as two
helicopters, were immediately sent to the scene. Rescuers with
trained dogs have searched the derailed cars to determine whether
there are any more victims.
French Transport Minister Frédéric Cuvillier has expressed his
condolences to the families of those killed, adding that the
accident “could not have been prevented."
"It is too early to establish what were the factors, notably
the weather conditions, that may have led to this boulder to
break off," Cuvillier told reporters.
He added that an inspection of the railway section - popular with
tourists - was held in mid-January and that the train has been
operating since 2011. Cuvillier promptly arrived at the scene of
the accident on Saturday afternoon. The president of the regional
council of Provence-Alpes-Cote-d'Azur, Michel Vauzelle, joined
the condolences.
This is the second fatal train crash in France in the past six months. In July 2013 a passenger train traveling through Bretigny station south of Paris derailed, killing least six people.