CLÉON, France — French investigators suspect sabotage after a Normandy regional train derailed Friday evening, injuring 44 people, France 24 reported with AFP. A police source told AFP on Saturday that a fragment of rail was found on the track and that a malicious act is the main line of inquiry — suspected sabotage, not a locked finding of a confirmed terrorist attack. Motive and suspects have not been named.

The TER, carrying 186 passengers between Rouen and Caen, derailed around 7:45 p.m. local time Friday, Sept. 11 (1745 GMT) near the Renault factory in Cléon (Seine-Maritime). Rouen prosecutor Sébastien Gallois said 44 people were injured, including an 18-year-old woman evacuated in critical condition (“urgence absolue”). Mediapart, citing AFP, later reported her life was no longer considered in danger. Driver alcohol and drug tests were negative, Gallois said.

Authorities activated a mass-casualty plan: about 130 firefighters, five medical teams, and 80 vehicles, France 24 and RFI reported. SNCF Réseau cut power and suspended the line so emergency crews could work; Saturday it said some services had resumed with replacement buses on Rouen–Caen while the wreck stayed in place pending prosecutors’ leave to remove it. SNCF said it would offer “full cooperation in complete transparency.”

Passenger Louis, 24, told ICI Normandie radio the car jolted harder and harder: windows partially shattered and track stones entered the carriage — “really shocking.” Uninjured passengers were sheltered in a room made available by Cléon’s mayor.

Attribute carefully: rail fragment + preferred malicious-act hypothesis ≠ a closed terrorism case. The open record Saturday is an AFP police source, 44 injured, and a regional corridor still under inquiry.

Sources