Train Derailment in France Injures 44; Authorities Suspect Sabotage

[Financial News]  

A passenger train derailed in France, injuring 44 people. Authorities suspect sabotage and have launched an investigation. Earlier, a train in Poland collided with a concrete mixer truck, killing one passenger and injuring more than 20 others.
According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), a regional express train (TER) traveling from Rouen to Caen derailed near Cléon in Seine-Maritime on the 11th (local time).
One carriage tilted onto its side and four others derailed, injuring 44 of the 186 passengers. One 18-year-old woman is in critical condition.
Investigators found a rail fragment estimated to weigh between 250 and 300 kilograms on the track. They believe someone may have deliberately caused the derailment.
Hervé Morin, president of the Normandy regional council, said, "A train passed just one hour before the derailment. Since no maintenance work had been carried out in the meantime, there is no way such a large rail fragment could simply have been left on the track." The prosecutor in charge also said the investigation must determine why the rail fragment was on the track.
In November last year, explosive devices and metal fasteners and clamps believed to have been intended to cause a derailment were also found along the railway connecting Warsaw and Lublin in Poland. The explosives detonated as a freight train passed, but the blast was too weak to cause any damage. At the time, Polish authorities concluded that two Ukrainians recruited by Russian intelligence agencies had carried out the sabotage.
Meanwhile, another train derailment occurred in Poland on the 9th. A passenger train carrying about 120 people collided with a concrete mixer truck at a crossing in Sokolniki Suche, Masovian Voivodeship. The truck driver testified, "The sunlight blinded me." One passenger was killed and more than 20 people were injured.

[email protected] Song Kyung-jae Reporter