By Julien Pretot
BESANCON, France (Reuters) - A woman was killed in an accident involving a motorcycle on the Tour de France, the French gendarmerie said on Saturday.
"We can confirm that one person has died," Alain Fontaine, a spokesman for the gendarmerie, told Reuters.
"A woman crossed the road and was hit by a Republican Guardsman on a motorcycle. Then the motorcycle slid and hit one or two more people."
A gendarmerie officer, who declined to be named, later said that the woman, in her early sixties, died "almost instantly."
He added that, according to witnesses, the woman had been seen crossing the road many times before she was hit by the motorcycle.
Two other people, a man in his sixties and a 37-year-old woman, were injured and taken to hospital in Mulhouse but were not in danger, the gendarmerie officer said.
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The Republican Guard are the ceremonial unit of the gendarmerie.
The accident happened after the 38.5-km mark, in the town of Wittelsheim, on the route of the 14th stage of the three-week cycle race over 199 kms from Colmar to Besancon.
It was the first fatal accident on the Tour since 2002, when a child died after being hit by a car from the publicity caravan.
(Editing by Clare Fallon)
