Train derails near Lyon due to landslide amid heavy rains

Weather conditions in France disrupted rail traffic around Lyon on Sunday, April 29. A train traveling from Firminy to Lyon hit a rock and its 200 passengers had to be evacuated, UNN reports with reference to Libération.

Details

On Sunday, April 28, in the early evening, a TER regional train carrying about 200 people got stuck near Lyon due to a "slope subsidence" caused by bad weather that hit the region. The passengers were evacuated, the railway company SNCF reported, adding that "there were no injuries." At the same time, the media, citing data from the Rhone prefecture, noted that two lightly injured people were recorded: a pregnant woman "in shock" and a man who was hit in the knee.

According to a representative of the railroad company, the vehicle "ran over stones that fell from the slope." After the collision with the stones and the "landslide," the train "partially derailed." The cause of the derailment was "slope subsidence," which could be explained by the heavy rains that had been falling in the region during the day, the representative said.

Addendum

About a month's worth of precipitation fell in the Lyon area overnight, meteorologists report.