Train crushes three migrants to death in France

According to reports, four migrants had been on the train tracks near Saint-Jean-de-Luz at around 5 am CET when they were hit by a train traveling to Bordeaux. Three people were died on the spot, while the other one is seriously injured, a police official said, adding that it wasn't clear why they were lying on the tracks.

Two of the migrants had Algerian nationality, the others' nationalities are not known.

Mayor Eneko Aldana-Douat of nearby Ciboure said on BFM TV that the area near the Spanish border is a passageway for immigrants.

The train was on a line that links the seaside resort town of Hendaye, on France's border with Spain, and the city of Bordeaux, the national railway company SNCF said.

The victims were thought to be migrants “who were sleeping or were lying ... on the railway line,'' said Eneko Aldana-Douat, mayor of Ciboure, near the crash site.

He said it's not unusual to see migrants in that region near the border.