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Overview
- Gina, the 12-year-old cat of CNews journalist Olivier Benkemoun, escaped a travel bag and was found dead after a TGV departed Gare de Lyon on Wednesday, July 1.
- Benkemoun says he will file a complaint accusing SNCF of inaction and says staff watched a 20-minute countdown without going onto the tracks while the cat was heard under the train.
- SNCF says teams immediately halted departures, mobilized about 20 agents and police for more than 30 minutes, followed the company’s protocol, and that the animal’s body was discovered only after the train passed.
- The contested 2025 procedure gives a first 10 minutes to locate an animal from the platform and a second 10 minutes to attempt retrieval without staff entering live tracks, after which a train may resume at very low speed.
- Animal-welfare groups have condemned the time limit and say they will seek legal avenues, and the case echoes the 2023 Neko death that led to the current SNCF protocol and ministerial calls for procedural change.