French train driver killed after crashing into truck at railway crossing

BULLY-LES-MINES, France (AP) — A French high-speed train driver was killed on Tuesday and 16 people were injured when his locomotive slammed into a truck carrying military equipment at a railway crossing in northern France, local authorities said.

The driver of the truck was detained, and an aggravated manslaughter investigation was opened, but it is too early to determine the exact cause of the crash, Prosecutor Etienne Thieffry told reporters.

Jean Castex, the head of the national railway authority SNCF, said the railroad crossing gates were functioning correctly. The train was traveling at 160 kilometers per hour (100 mph) when it hit the truck, the local prefect said.

Rescue crews rushed to the scene after the crash in the town of Bully-les-Mines on a train route leading from Dunkirk to Paris, the regional administration said in a statement, adding that two of those wounded were seriously injured and that more than 200 train passengers were evacuated.

The nose of the locomotive was badly mangled and the truck also severely damaged, according to an Associated Press journalist at the scene. The train remained on the tracks, and the railway and some nearby roads were closed while emergency teams and investigators worked in the area.

The truck was tossed toward a nearby garden by the impact. The worst damage to the truck was in the rear of the vehicle, not the cab.

The crunch of the collision soon after dawn awakened some residents. Others told the AP that they were alerted by the smell of gasoline, or the sight of flames above the crash site.

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Associated Press writer Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.