PARIS — Officials say an enormous boulder has smashed into a tourist train, derailing it and killing two people.

The train derailed Saturday morning outside the French town of Annot, and Mayor Jean Ballester told BFM television that “there are unfortunately two dead.” France’s top security official, Manuel Vals, confirmed two dead and nine injured.

The so-called Train of the Pines runs from the southern French city of Nice to Digne-les-Bain. Ballester said about 30 people were on board when it derailed. The train was still dangling dramatically from the tracks three hours after the accident, the side of one car caved in from the boulder.

Ballester said the rock felll from the mountain “with an extraordinary force.”