Around 13 killed in French train crash -official

PARIS, Oct 11 (Reuters) A passenger train from Luxembourg collided head-on with a goods train in north eastern France today, killing around 13 people, state SNCF railways said.

Rail officials said the trains were travelling in opposite directions on the same stretch of track because of maintenance work on an adjoining line.

''It is terrible,'' Patrick Hatzig, a vice-president of the Lorraine regional council, told Reuters by telephone from the site of the crash.

''There was a head-on collision. Some people were seriously injured and have been moved (to hospital). Others are still trapped in there.'' The passenger train heading from Luxembourg to the French city of Nancy slammed into the goods train at around 1515 hrs (0945 GMT) near the station of Zoufftgen, in the French department of Moselle.

SNCF said ''about 10 passengers'' died as well as the two drivers of the trains. A workman was killed by the trackside, a local official said.

Today's crash appeared to be the worst train disaster in France since November 2002 when fire swept through a sleeping car on a Paris-Vienna express train, killing 12 people.

French railways said they had opened an inquiry into the collision.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin was flying to the French Caribbean when news of the accident broke and decided to turn back to France to visit the crash scene.

A spokesman for Luxembourg police said some carriages from the crashed passenger train were still on the Luxembourg side of the border.

''We have been closing streets and roads in the area around the site of the accident. We have also brought in traffic police to take charge of any ambulances if they come into Luxembourg,'' said spokesman Vic Reuter.

REUTERS PDM RK1900