Train driver dead after crash with lorry carrying military equipment

A driver was killed and 16 passengers were injured when a high-speed train and a truck carrying military equipment collided in France.

The crash happened on Tuesday just before 7am at a railway crossing in the town of Bully-les-Mines, authorities said.

More than 200 passengers were on board at the time, with two people taken to hospital in a critical condition.

The 56-year-old train driver was pronounced dead at the scene.

An aggravated manslaughter investigation has now been opened and the driver of the lorry was held in custody.

It is thought the train was travelling at an estimated 100mph at the time of the impact, which happened as they were travelling from Dunkirk to Paris, the regional administration, Francois-Xavier Lauch, said.

Prosecutor Etienne Thieffry said it is too early to determine the exact cause of the crash.

However, the railroad crossing gates were working correctly, according to Jean Castex, head of SNCF - the national railway authority that operates nearly all rain transport in the country.

Rescue crews were still at the scene on Tuesday clearing the wreckage as investigators continued to probe the cause of the accident.

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Pictures from the scene showed the front of the locomotive was badly mangled and the HGV was also severely damaged.

The wrecked train remained on the tracks and the railway line was closed while emergency teams worked in the area.

It became the second similar incident in the last few weeks, after a lorry driver was killed in a collision with a train at a level crossing in Saint Raphael in southeastern France on 25 March.