At least one person has died and thirteen have been injured, two of them seriously, in the collision of a high-speed train with a military truck at a level crossing in the town of Noeux-les-Mines, in the department of Pas-de-Calais, in northern France.
The high-speed train, TGV, which was traveling from the city of Dunkirk to Paris, suffered a collision with a heavy military vehicle that came from maneuvers in Belgium, leaving one person dead, the driver, as well as a dozen people injured, several seriously, in an accident that took place at 7:00 a.m. (local time), according to the television channel TF1.
The train, which was carrying 243 passengers, suffered a derailment after colliding with the heavy vehicle that was transporting military material without military personnel on board.
As reported early in the day by the French Minister of Transport, Philippe Tabarot, the general director of the French National Railway Company (SNCF), former Prime Minister Jean Castex, has traveled to the area, while the railway line affected by the accident has been closed until further notice.
A hundred firefighters, Emergency Medical Service personnel, as well as police officers and dozens of civil protection volunteers have been mobilized to the area. The SNFC has chartered six buses to transport the passengers of the damaged train.