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At Least 65 People Injured in Tram Collision Inside Railway Station

At least 65 people were injured after two trams collided in the French city of Strasbourg.

According to reports from the Associated Press, AFP, BBC and local French outlet RFI (Radio France International), the two trams crashed into one another at Strasbourg’s central railway station on Saturday, Jan. 11.

RFI reported that one tram that had been stopped in a traffic jam in one of the station’s tunnels began moving backwards down a slope and collided with another tram that was not moving. Both trams were carrying dozens of passengers and, according to an updated count from officials on Sunday, 68 people had reported injuries.

“The tram set off again at full speed towards the station,” Romaric Koumba, a passenger on one of the trams, told RFI. “As we were setting off again towards the station, we realized that there was already another tram that had returned to the station. This tram was at a standstill, thank God.”

“When the tram collided with the other one, the doors flew off,” he added.

Another witness, Johan Kirschenbaum, told the French outlet that the moving train seemingly had a problem with its brakes.

“We heard a big impact, a big bang,” he said.

Video obtained by BBC shows the immediate aftermath of the crash, including wrecked tram cars with broken windows and doors, several cars becoming unattached from each other, an alarm ringing through the station and passengers screaming as bystanders on the train platform attempted to help them out of the tram cars.

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About 100 passengers were not injured in the crash, René Cellier, director of the Bas-Rhin region’s Fire and Rescue Service, said after the incident, per the AP. Each passenger was assessed for shock and stress, he said, adding that 130 firefighters and 50 rescue vehicles were deployed at the scene.

“Around 50 people are in a state of relative emergency, with injuries such as scalp wounds, clavicle fractures and knee sprains,” Cellier said. “But there are no critical injuries. It could have been much worse.”

The director of the Strasbourg transport company Emmanuel Auneau told RFI that both tram drivers were not injured but were “very shocked.”

The exact cause of the collision is still unknown, the outlets reported.

French prosecutors opened an investigation into the “unintentional injuries,” the outlets reported, but an initial investigation found that the crash was not “intentional.”

“An initial investigation has ruled out the hypothesis of an intentional act,” prosecutor Alexandre Chevrier told RFI.

Strasbourg Mayor Jeanne Barseghian described the incident in French as a “brutal collision” on X, and expressed her gratitude to the first responders, writing: “I am at the station with the injured and rescuers. Thank you for your mobilization.”

The tram company told RFI that traffic at the railway station has been suspended for several days. This incident marks the first tram accident in Strasbourg — located in the Alsace region — since 1998.

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