Paris train hits buffer, many hurt
Friday, April 6, 2007
MORE than 70 people were injured yesterday 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 firefighters' 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 five to seven kilometres per hour, 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".AFP
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 firefighters' 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 five to seven kilometres per hour, 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".AFP
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