PARIS (AFP) - A French court on Wednesday sentenced two doctors and a radiophysicist to 18 months in prison for their role in radiation overdoses given to nearly 450 cancer patients.

At least 12 people have died as a result of the overdoses administered to patients at the Jean Monnet hospital in Epinal in northeastern France between 2001 and 2006.

Dozens more are seriously ill as a result of calibration errors that produced the most serious radiation overdose incident France has known.

The doctors and the radiophysicist had been charged with manslaughter, failure to help people in danger and destroying evidence.