A regional passenger train derailed in northern France on Friday evening, injuring 44 people and leaving one person in a critical condition. The train, carrying between 180 and 186 passengers, was travelling between the Normandy cities of Rouen and Caen when it came off the tracks at around 7:45pm local time near the commune of Cléon, just south of Rouen. French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot confirmed the incident on social media and said he was travelling to the scene.

Local authorities activated a mass-casualty response plan, deploying around 130 to 140 firefighters, five medical teams and 80 vehicles to the site. An 18-year-old woman, the most seriously hurt among the injured, was airlifted by helicopter to Rouen University Hospital in critical condition. Photographs showed passengers evacuating overturned carriages, with French media reporting that three carriages had derailed and come to rest on the embankment.

French newspaper Le Parisien reported that the train, travelling at approximately 140 kilometres per hour, struck a metal object that had been lying on the tracks near Oissel-sur-Seine, a town along the Seine river south of Rouen. A police source cited by broadcaster BFMTV described it as