Lyons - Police investigating the derailment of a train which killed two passengers and injured 13 more detained one person for questioning yesterday.
Sections of rail were found at the site of the derailment of the locomotive and nine cars, 20 km south of Lyons. The train had been travelling overnight from the Italian border to the Channel port of Calais. The rail sections of about a metre long appeared to indicate an act of sabotage, police said.
An elderly man died from a heart attack and a person travelling with the driver in the cabin was killed, a statement by the national railway company SNCF said. None of the 13 injured was in a serious condition.
According to police a major train wreck had been only narrowly averted in March after a stolen car was parked across the same rail track near where yesterday's accident occurred.