STORY: At least six people died and a dozen were seriously injured when a train derailed and hit the platform at a station in central France on Friday, leaving several carriages torn and one lying on its side, officials said.

Local prefect Michel Fuzeau said nine of the 12 people injured were very seriously wounded, and Interior Minister Manuel Valls said the death toll would probably rise.

The train -- a regional service that travels more slowly than France's TGV express trains -- veered off the track en route from Paris to the city of Limoges at the station of Bretigny-sur-Oise, 26 km (16 miles) south of Paris.

"The death toll is evolving constantly at this point and unfortunately it will probably rise," Valls said.

National rail operator SNCF said the train, traveling just as many French families were heading off on summer holidays, was carrying around 385 people and that an investigation was under way into what had happened.

"We do not know the cause