RismadarVoice Reporters
September 12, 2026
At least 44 people were injured after a regional passenger train derailed in northwestern France, with authorities investigating whether the incident was caused by an obstruction deliberately placed on the railway track.
The train, carrying 186 passengers from Rouen to Caen, derailed on Friday evening at Cléon in the Seine-Maritime department of Normandy.
French police said an 18-year-old woman was among those injured and was airlifted to Rouen University Hospital for treatment.
According to the French national police communications service, known as SICOP, investigators found a piece of rail on the track which was believed to have been connected to the derailment.
Authorities are yet to determine whether the incident was accidental or the result of deliberate sabotage.
A SICOP spokesperson told the Associated Press on Saturday that investigators were examining the circumstances surrounding the derailment, while the prosecutor’s office had cautioned against drawing premature conclusions.
The incident has prompted renewed attention to railway safety in France, which has experienced several serious rail accidents in the past.
In July 2013, seven people were killed when a train derailed at Brétigny-sur-Orge, south of Paris.
Two years later, in November 2015, a high-speed TGV train conducting tests derailed near Eckwersheim, close to Strasbourg, killing 11 people.
More recently, a collision involving two high-speed trains in Adamuz, southern Spain, killed 46 people and injured more than 100 people in January, according to the Andalusian regional government.
