PARIS, France (CNN) -- A passenger train collided head-on with a freight train in northeastern France on Wednesday, killing at least five people, rail officials said.
French and Luxembourg rescue officials said another three people remained trapped in the wreckage. They could not say if those three were alive or dead.
Another two people were seriously injured in the crash at Zoufftgen, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Luxembourg. (Watch rescuers work around the shredded metal heap -- 2:31)
Officials lowered the death toll after earlier saying at least 11 people had been killed. "There are, without doubt, five victims, even if the work to free other (bodies) is not completely over," Dominique Perben told LCI television, adding it was less likely more victims would be found.
The passenger train was traveling from Luxembourg to the French city of Nancy. The freight train was on its way from Thionville to Luxembourg.
Luc Ankrai, the deputy police chief for Moselle told CNN the freight train collided with the passenger train at 11:45 a.m. (0945 GMT) in an area where there was only a single track open because of repair work being done.
According to Bertrand Mertz, vice-president of the Lorraine Regional Council, who was interviewed on French broadcaster France 3 Lorraine, the cause of the accident was a switching error in Luxembourg.
French railway officials said the French freight train was on the right track and had the green light to proceed.
The head of the Luxembourg railway told CNN he could not comment on whether there had been a switching error. He said an investigation was needed to establish the facts.
The passenger train was on its way from Luxembourg to Nancy. The freight train was on its way from Thionville to Luxembourg.
President Jacques Chirac ordered the government to "oversee the mobilization of all rescue services and quickly bring to light the circumstances of this dramatic accident," his office said, according to The Associated Press.
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who was flying to the French Caribbean, decided to turn back to France so he could visit the scene of the crash, his office said.
French Transportation Minister Dominique Perben also announced he would go to the scene.
More than 300 police and rescue workers from both France and Luxembourg were at the scene.
Youths light bus, stone firefighters in suburban Paris
POSTED: 9:53 p.m. EDT, October 22, 2006
PARIS, France (AP) -- A band of youths, some wearing masks, forced passengers out of a bus in a southern Paris suburb in broad daylight, set the bus afire and then stoned firefighters who came to the rescue, a police official said.
Police cordoned off the neighborhood in Grigny, in the Essonne region, after the bus attack Sunday, which came five days before the one-year anniversary of the start of three weeks of fiery riots by poor suburban youths.
District police chief Jean-Francois Papineau called Sunday's bus attack "deliberate." He said a vehicle was set afire at about 2 p.m. and used as a roadblock that forced the bus to stop. Two youths then entered the back of the bus to clear out passengers before dousing it with gasoline and setting it ablaze.
The blaze, which left the bus a tangled carcass of metal, spread to four parked cars, Papineau told LCI television.
When firefighters arrived, the youths, some masked, began stoning them, he said. No one was injured. Two people were arrested, one of them a 13-year-old, according to LCI.
The local prefecture said that nearly 30 youths were involved in the incident. LCI reported that about 50 youths, some carrying iron bars, were involved.
Meanwhile, France's minister for social cohesion, Jean-Louis Borloo, called on citizens to act responsibly because "tensions are raw just as we're in the process of resolving the difficulties."
The daylight bus-burning evoked memories of the riots. It followed nearly a half-dozen incidents in recent weeks in which suburban youths have attacked police officers, in some cases in planned ambushes. Such clashes have raised tensions ahead of Friday's anniversary of the start of the riots.
Police secured the Grande Borne neighborhood of Grigny, the local government said, adding that order was quickly restored.
The riots last year laid bare rampant discrimination in the housing projects surrounding France's big cities, where numerous French of immigrant origin live, separated from mainstream life.
The government has since provided funds and enacted numerous measures in a bid to reverse the situation. However, the problem remains entrenched, and there are no concrete signs that daily violence has diminished.
On Saturday, five people were placed under investigation for attempted murder in connection to an October 13 ambush in the town of Epinay-sur-Seine, north of Paris, in which police were lured to a housing project then attacked by about 30 youths. One officer hit by a rock required 30 stitches to the face.
Borloo, the social cohesion minister, said it could take three or four years to see concrete results from the efforts his government has put in place.
Speaking on Europe-1 radio, he called on "parents, associations, mayors, all (those involved)" in the suburbs to "act responsibly" to avoid a new explosion.
"Authority is clearly needed but we also need dialogue and respect, much more than we had in those neighborhoods," he said.
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