ECKWERSHEIM: A train undergoing a trial on a new high-speed line from Paris to Strasbourg derailed on Saturday near the German border, killing 10 people, the local prefecture said.

Another 32 people were injured, 12 seriously

All of the 49 people aboard the train were employees of the SNCF national railways.

The accident was caused by excessive speed, although it was too early to say why the train was going that fast, the prefecture said.

Pictures from a Reuters photographer at the scene showed the locomotive partly submerged in a canal alongside the tracks with other parts lying broken and detached in a field beside the track.

Rescue workers carry a victim from the wreckage of a test TGV train that derailed and crashed in a canal outside Echwersheim near Strasbourg. —Reuters

Medical units including police divers were on the scene.

French Environment Minister Segolene Royal was en route to the crash scene, the prefecture said. The second section of the Paris-Strasbourg high-speed TGV line on which the crash happened is set to open for service in April 2016.

Earlier on Friday, in the deadliest violence to strike France since World War II, a wave of coordinated attacks left more than 128 dead in scenes of carnage in Paris.

The self-styled Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.