French regional train derails near Rouen, leaving 44 injured and one critical

Derailment in Normandy

A regional passenger train travelling along the line between Rouen and Caen derailed on Friday evening in the commune of Cléon, located in the Seine-Maritime department in Normandy. The derailment took place between 19:30 and 19:45 local time as the train transported between 180 and 200 passengers. Four carriages of the regional convoy left the tracks during the journey. Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot initially reported on Friday night that approximately twenty people had been injured. Judicial authorities subsequently revised the casualty count upward to 44 injured passengers. Among the victims, an 18-year-old woman sustained severe trauma and was airlifted by helicopter to a regional hospital in very serious condition.

Emergency response and Orsec activation

The prefecture of Seine-Maritime activated the Orsec crisis management plan, a protocol designated for large-scale emergencies with multiple casualties. The operation brought 130 firefighters, five specialised medical teams, and 80 emergency vehicles directly to the railway site in Cléon. First responders extracted passengers from the derailed carriages, wrapping evacuees in survival blankets and escorting them to waiting vehicles under police escort. Rouen public prosecutor Sébastien Gallois confirmed that 43 passengers suffered injuries ranging from moderate to serious severity. Medical personnel treated several victims on site while transferring others to local medical facilities for care.

Passenger accounts from the scene

Passengers on board reported sudden violent vibrations before the carriages departed the rails. Louis, a 24-year-old passenger who escaped the crash with minor scratches, described the sequence of events as the train began an emergency stop.

At first I thought it was normal, but after two or three seconds, the vibration became more and more intense. I was shaken a lot, I couldn't stay in my seat, I had to hold on to the front seat. We started to derail, the windows broke, especially in the front part of the carriage. The ballast from the tracks was thrown everywhere inside the carriage. There were glass fragments almost everywhere. It was really shocking, I am still shaking.

Investigation and track inspection

The judicial police launched an inquiry under the direction of the Rouen prosecutor's office to establish the cause of the crash. Breathalyser and toxicological screenings conducted on the train driver for alcohol, narcotics, and pharmaceutical substances all returned negative. Preliminary findings by national rail operator SNCF and local police indicate that the train struck an unidentified object on the railway tracks. Railway workers from the CGT trade union stated that a metal bar had been found on the rails, pointing to possible malicious action, though judicial authorities have not officially confirmed that hypothesis. Deputy prosecutor Marie-Valérie Albert addressed the timeline of the inquiry during a press conference on Friday night.

The investigation will take a long time.

SNCF promised total transparency throughout the investigation, while technical teams began examining the four derailed carriages and the surrounding track infrastructure.