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10 die as trains collide in France

ZOUFFTGEN (France): Two trains collided on Wednesday in northeastern France close to the border with Luxembourg, killing at least 10 persons, possibly more, the French rail company said.

The late morning crash in Zoufftgen, about 2 km south of the border with Luxembourg, involved a passenger train and a freight train that collided head-on, said Philippe Mirville, a spokesman for French rail operator SNCF. The SNCF had said about 10 persons on the passenger train were believed to have been killed. Rail officials later said the train drivers — one French, another from Luxembourg — as well as a person on the tracks also were believed dead. It said 20 others were injured.

The local government for the Lorraine region, however, later revised its casualty figure downward from 10 to four dead, and said nine others were trapped inside the wreckage. Several cars of the freight train were either crumpled up, bent skyward or tipped over on their sides.

Relief work on

The passenger train had been travelling from Luxembourg to the French city of Nancy, he said. The train line it was travelling on was being repaired, so it switched onto a second track, hitting the oncoming freight train, said Mr. Mirville.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin delayed a trip to the French Antilles to head to the crash site with Transport Minister Dominique Perben.

Luxembourg's Transport Minister Lucien Lux also rushed to the scene, though his office declined to give any details. Guy Schuller, a Luxembourg Government spokesman, said the victims had not yet been fully identified. More than 100 rescue workers were at or heading to the crash site to set up a mobile hospital and treat victims. — AP

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