Three dead as French train hits car at level crossing

Three people were killed on Friday evening when a regional train hit a car on a level crossing in Normandy in northwestern France, an official said.

The three victims were in the car "which seems to have stopped in the middle of the tracks" at Conde-sur-Huisne in the Orne region before being hit by a Paris-bound train at 8:22 pm (1822 GMT), said deputy prefect Pascal Vion.

A fourth person, "a woman of a certain age", managed to escape from the vehicle before it was hit and "dragged burning for several hundred metres" along the track after the impact.

None of the 34 passengers on the train, which was travelling from Le Mans to the French capital, were hurt.