The number of people known to have been killed after a train derailed outside Paris has been lowered to six following new information from French authorities.
Another nine people are said to be seriously injured after the train, which was carrying hundreds of passengers, crashed into Bretigny-sur-Orge station, according to France’s Interior Ministry.
Dozens of other passengers received less severe injuries.
French president Francois Hollande has abandoned his plans in the capital to visit the scene. Interior Minister Manuel Valls earlier told reporters that seven people had died and dozens were hurt in what was a “constantly evolving” situation.
The SNCF national rail authority said the train was carrying some 385 passengers when it derailed at 5.15pm and crashed into the station, some 20 kilometres south of Paris. The train was heading for Limoges.
SNCF official Jean-Paul Boulet said four carriages piled up after the train derailed. He could not confirm reports that passengers were still trapped inside.
A passenger speaking on France’s BFM television said the train was going at a normal speed and was not meant to stop at Bretigny-sur-Orge.
Two train cars, cars number three and four, initially derailed, then knocked the other cars off the track, SNCF chief Guillaume Pepy said.
“Some cars simply derailed, others are leaning, others fell over,” he said. Mr Pepy called the accident a “catastrophe”.
All trains from Paris’ Gare d’Austerlitz were suspended after the accident.
The accident comes as France is preparing to celebrate its most important national holiday, Bastille Day, on Sunday, and as holidaymakers are heading out of Paris and other big cities to see family or on summer vacation.
Ben Khelifa, a passenger on a commuter train on the adjacent track, said: “The train was unrecognizable. There was nothing, but metal scraps. “The train just collapsed, just like that, on its side... There was blood.”
He said he was one of a number of passengers in the adjacent train who went to help pull trapped survivors out of the wreckage.
“People were screaming, people were asking where their children were,” he said.
Another witness, Bazgua El Mehdi, told the Le Parisien newspaper: “I heard a loud noise. A cloud of sand covered everything.
“Then the dust dissipated. I thought it was a freight train, but then we saw the first casualties. Many passengers on the (train) were crying.”
AP