A anti-nuclear protester has died after his leg was severed by a train carrying atomic waste from France to Germany.
The 23-year-old lay down on the track as the train passed near the town of Avricourt, eastern France.
The train had already been delayed for two hours while police cut free two other protesters who had chained themselves to a section of track.
The train was carrying nuclear waste being sent back to Germany after reprocessing in northern France.
Paramedics offered the protester emergency treatment and rushed him to hospital for surgery.
He died before reaching a nearby hospital, the Associated Press reported.
Too late to stop
The train driver tried to brake after seeing a group of people sitting on the tracks, a spokeswoman for French railway company SNCF told Reuters.
"Some of them got up. He pulled the emergency brake, but one of the people remained sitting, and one of his legs was cut off and he has died," she said.
Earlier in the day another group of protesters delayed the train's journey for around two hours. Two activists from the Sortir du Nucleaire (Out of Nuclear) group chained themselves to the tracks at Laneuveville-devant-Nancy, forcing the train to stop while police removed them.
