An overnight train heading for Austria caught fire in eastern France, filling a sleeping car with smoke and killing 12 passengers inside, officials said Wednesday. Nine people were injured.

The fire broke out as the Paris-Vienna train with 150 passengers on board was passing through the city of Nancy, officials in the Meurthe-et-Moselle region said. The train was heading for Vienna via Strasbourg, near the French-German border.

Authorities were initially attributing the cause to an electrical problem, possibly in the heating system.

A train conductor first noticed smoke pouring out of a wagon at about 2:15 a.m. as the train passed the Nancy station on its way to Strasbourg. The train pulled to a stop about 800 yards past the station, and firefighters rushed in.

"Rescuers got to the scene at 2:22 a.m. They discovered the first sleeping car charred," regional official Jean-Francois Cordet said. "Inside were 12 dead, nine injured."

Those killed were six men, five women and one child, authorities said. Their nationality was not immediately known.

Chief firefighter Jean-Louis Modere said most victims died of smoke inhalation, though he did not say exactly how many.

"The catastrophe was amplified by the fact that it was in a confined space. The fire was limited, and the amount of smoke very quickly became catastrophic," he said. The train car dated back to the 1960s and included wood construction and fitted carpeting.

The injured — four Germans, three Britons, one American and one French national — were taken to a university hospital in Nancy.

Police investigators were on the scene. A team of psychologists was sent in to help survivors cope with the trauma.

Officials offered passengers shelter in a local gymnasium, France Info radio reported.

Fatal train accidents are extremely rare in France, whose high-speed rail network is considered one of the best in the world.

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