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| Train collides with school bus in southern France, at least 4 dead | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| At least four people were killed and 19 more injured when a school bus collided with a train in southern France on Thursday. The school bus was reportedly cut into two in the collision. | |
| The incident happened outside the town of Perpignan near the Mediterranean coast and the border with Spain, local media reports. | The incident happened outside the town of Perpignan near the Mediterranean coast and the border with Spain, local media reports. |
| BFMTV first talked of at least three fatalities, including two children, but later the interior ministry upped the number to four adding 19 more people sustained various injuries. | |
| Seven of them were seriously injured, local media said. All the victims are school-bus passengers aged between 13 and 17. | |
| The train reportedly hit the rear part of the bus at a railway crossing. The bus was "cut" in two parts following the collision, according to a witness cited by France Bleu. | |
| Another witness, the one on the train, told L'Independant that the impact was so strong, passengers feared the train was about to derail. | |
| The crossing is not listed as dangerous, a representative of France's SNCF railway company told Le Figaro, adding that it is "well equipped." According to other reports in French media, the crossing has been criticized for the lack of safety, with several accidents having allegedly happened there before. | |
| The train was traveling at 80 kilometers an hour (50mph), "a normal speed at this location," the SNCF official said. The barriers were reportedly lowered at the time of the accident, according to several eyewitness reports. | |
| French Transport Minister Elizabeth Borne called the crash a "terrible accident" adding that emergency and public services are fully mobilized and she is going to the scene, some 850km south of Paris. | |
| "All emergency services have been mobilized and a crisis-coordination unit set up," the townhall said in a tweet. | "All emergency services have been mobilized and a crisis-coordination unit set up," the townhall said in a tweet. |