The accident happened Wednesday at around 3:45 p.m. local time (1345 UTC) near the village of Saint-Aunes, between the southern French cities of Nimes and Montpellier.
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Some of the injured were in an “absolutely urgent” state and another 50 people suffered minor injuries.
The critically injured person – who witnesses said had been thrown from the train – was evacuated to hospital by helicopter.
The tree had fallen across the tracks in a torrential hail storm before the train, carrying 200 passengers, came down the line.
“Firefighters and police are at the scene where access is very hard”. Not much, but very quickly we knew that the situation was serious’.
Several people were treated for shock at the scene.
One passenger said: “We thought that the train derailed and we would not get out alive, we were very afraid”.
She wrote: “It was a tree that totally smashed the train”.
Images of the scene show the remains of the tree on the track, with the huge branches covering the tracks. The train did not derail.
Services on the line in the south of France have been cancelled in both directions as an emergency mission gets underway.
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The accident occurred near the town of Lunel, about 28km south-west of Nimes.
