DIGNE-LES-BAINS, France, Feb 8 AFP - Two women have been killed after a massive falling boulder hit a passing train in the French Alps, leaving one of its carriages dangling precariously off a steep, snow-covered embankment.
Eight people were injured in Saturday's accident, which happened as the train travelled from the coastal city of Nice to the popular tourist town of Digne-les-Bains along a narrow, winding, and sometimes breathtakingly steep track.
A Russian woman was killed as well as a woman living in the Alps region, said local prosecutor Stephane Kellenberger, adding that 34 people had been on board the train.
Both victims were in their seventies.
Witnesses said an enormous boulder had struck the train, violently throwing one of its two carriages off the track.
Images of the accident show the carriage hanging off the edge of a ravine, with a large crater in its side as the other teeters on the edge.
"It was as if the boulder fell from the sky, like in an earthquake," said traveller Jean-Jacques Messaoud, 47, who said he had seen a victim bleeding heavily.
Another passenger, Floriane Bonnet, was relaxing at the back of the train when the accident happened.
"I didn't understand, I was thrown to the left and I saw the first half of the train go down the embankment. I tried to break a window but couldn't manage it so I left through the front."
Another woman was rushed to hospital in critical condition and seven others were lightly injured, according to local authorities.
The railway, known as the Train des Pignes (Pine Cone Train), is hugely popular among tourists, taking them on a picturesque 151-kilometre journey from the sea to the mountains of Haute-Provence.
French Transport Minister Frederic Cuvillier was due to visit the scene of the accident on Saturday afternoon.
