More than 70 people were injured on Thursday when a train carrying hundreds of rush-hour commuters hit the rail buffer of a Paris station, firefighters said.
The driver was held for questioning by police after the nine-carriage train carrying 600 passengers struck the buffer as it pulled into the Gare de l’Est station, in eastern Paris.
Roger, a 58-year-old commuter, said the train arrived at the station 15 minutes late and that many hurried passengers were standing up, ready to step off, when they were thrown to the floor by the impact.
“I was dozing… and then there was a sudden jolt,” he said. “A woman in front of me fell and hurt her knee. She was bleeding through her trousers.”
A doctor with the Paris firefighting service said 71 people were injured, 58 of whom were taken to hospitals around the capital.
Doctor Henri Lehot of the Paris firefighting brigade said there were cracked ribs, knee injuries, broken noses and sprains. Most of the injured who required hospital care should be able to return home quickly, he said.
Paris police chief Pierre Mutz went to the Gare de L’Est to oversee an emergency operation in which 115 firefighters and rescue officials were dispatched to the station.
The director of the regional train service from the state-owned SNCF company, Thierry Mignauw, told a news conference that the driver “was in police hands” and that an investigation was under way into the cause of the accident.
The regional train travelling from Chateau-Thierry, east of Paris, hit the buffer on track 21 at a speed of about 5km/h to 7km/h, according to Mignauw.
Commuter Roger said that an angry mob of passengers stepped off the train, approached the driver’s compartment and were “bashing the window as if they wanted to lynch him”.
“The investigation will determine whether there was a problem with the brake system,” said Mignauw, adding that the driver had not alerted SNCF of any technical problem before the accident.
Mignauw said that when the train slows down to a speed of under 10km/h, “the accuracy of the stop is determined by the driver”.
Transport Minister Dominique Perben ordered a separate probe and sent two experts from the ministry’s bureau of investigation into accidents to the station.
A security cordon was thrown up around the platform and surrounding area, while the damaged buffer could be seen broken in several pieces. The accident caused disruption and delays for other suburban rail services to the station, a major hub for trains from the eastern outskirts of Paris.
A SNCF spokesperson initially dismissed the accident as minor, saying that some passengers had suffered “a few bruises”.
“It’s not an accident, but an incident, which happens from time to time,” said the spokesperson, adding that the train had “hit the buffer a bit roughly”. — AFP