More than 70 people were injured on Thursday when a traincarrying hundreds of rush-hour commuters hit the rail buffer of a Paris station,firefighters said.

The driver was held for questioning by police after the nine-carriage traincarrying 600 passengers hit the buffer as it pulled into the Gare de l'Eststation, in eastern Paris.

A doctor with the Parisfirefighters' service said 71 people were injured, 58 of whom were taken to adozen hospitals around the capital.

Paris policechief Pierre Mutz went to the Gare de L'Est to oversee an emergency operationin which 115 firefighters and rescue officials were dispatched to the station.

The regional train from Chateau-Thierry, eastof Paris, wastraveling at slow speed but a commuter told AFP that the impact was still"very strong" and passengers were thrown to the floor.

"Many passengers were standing up and were getting ready to get offbecause the train was late," the commuter said.

Parisfirefighters said most of the injured suffered bruises from being thrown to thefloor. One commuter suffered a broken nose and others sustained sprains.

A spokesman for the state-owned rail company SNCF said the passengerssuffered "a few bruises" when the train came to a sudden halt as itarrived at the station at around 8:30 am (0630 GMT).

"It's not an accident, but an incident, which happens from time totime," said a spokesman, saying the train had "hit the buffer a bitroughly."

The director of the regional train service, Thierry Mignauw, told a newsconference that the driver "was in police hands" and that aninvestigation was under way into the cause of the accident.

Mignauw said that the train hit the buffer on track 21 of the train stationat a speed of about five to seven kilometres per hour (three to 4.5 miles perhour).

"The investigation will determine whether there was a problem with thebrake system," said Mignauw, adding that the driver had not alerted SNCFof any technical problem before the accident.

Transport Minister Dominique Perben ordered a separate probe and sent twoexperts from the ministry's bureau of investigation into accidents to thestation.

The accident caused disruption and delays for other suburban rail servicesto the station, a major hub for trains from the eastern outskirts of Paris.