A packed intercity train has derailed while transporting passengers from Paris to Limoges, an official for France's national railways says.


The official said it's not yet clear if anyone has been hurt, but the French newspaper Le Parisien is reporting that eight people are thought to be dead.


The paper said many of the wounded are still stuck on the train.


Jean-Paul Boulet, spokesman for SNCF, the country's state-owned railway company, said the train was carrying some 350 passengers when it derailed Friday evening at 5:15 p.m. local time and crashed into the station at Bretigny-sur-Orge, about 20 kilometres south of Paris.


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