Details added (the first version published at 21:18)
At least seven people were killed in the derailment of a train south of Paris on Friday, Interior Minister Manuel Valls said, dpa reported.
Several people were reported dead or injured after an inter-city train derailed in a station about 40 kilometres south of Paris, according to local authorities.
The head of SNCF Guillaume Pepy spoke to reporters of a "rail disaster." He said the train was carrying about 370 passengers.
BFM TV quoted a police union as saying eight people had been killed and several injured.
The prefecture of the Essonne region, where the accident took place, spoke of "several casualties" and said an emergency plan had been launched.
The train, which was en route from Austerlitz station in Paris to the central city of Limoges, was carrying 350 passengers, BFM TV reported. All rail traffic to and from Austerlitz station had been suspended, the national railways operator SNCF said.
Witnesses told French media the train entered Bretigny-sur-Orge station at breakneck speed and crashed, causing part of the train to become uncoupled from the locomotive. The train had not been scheduled to stop at the station.
Photographs posted on Twitter showed part of the train was lying on its side and the overhang of a platform badly damaged.
Rescue workers were still trying to reach some passengers trapped by the wreckage. The accident took place on one of the busiest weekends for traffic in France, as many holidaymakers leave the capital.