Spain will hold three days of national mourning after a high-speed train collision in the southern province of Córdoba killed at least 42 people and injured around 120 others.
The crash happened near the town of Adamuz on Sunday evening, when two high-speed trains collided. State broadcaster RTVE said 12 of the injured remain in intensive care.
Regional authorities in Andalusia said 37 people are still missing, warning the death toll could rise as identification efforts continue.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced three days of national mourning late on Monday and pledged full transparency in the investigation.
"We are going to find out the truth, and when we do, it will be made public with absolute clarity," Sanchez said.
Spain’s Railway Accident Investigation Committee has opened a formal probe. Rail operator Renfe said initial assessments suggest the crash was not caused by human error.
Authorities said the collision followed the derailment of two express trains near Adamuz, about 360 kilometres south of Madrid. Both trains overturned, with the leading carriages of the second train plunging down an embankment.
The crash caused major disruption to rail services. More than 200 trains between Madrid and southern Andalusia, including routes to Cordoba, Seville and Granada, were cancelled throughout the day.
Sanchez cleared his schedule to address the incident, his office said.
Video footage circulating on social media showed rescue teams pulling passengers from twisted carriages under floodlights. Some passengers escaped through broken windows, while others were carried away on stretchers.
Officials said around 400 passengers were travelling on the two trains, most of them Spaniards heading to or from Madrid after the weekend. It was unclear how many foreign tourists were on board.
Transport Minister Oscar Puente said the cause of the crash has not yet been determined.
Death toll could rise
Andalusia’s regional president Juanma Moreno said at least 75 people were hospitalised, including 15 in serious condition, warning that the toll could rise once rescuers gain full access to the wreckage.
Spain’s King and Queen were kept informed, while embassies contacted staff to check on their safety.
Local television showed a reception centre set up in Adamuz, where residents brought food and blankets as overnight temperatures fell to around 6°C.
"The train tipped to one side... then everything went dark, and all I heard was screams," said Ana Garcia Aranda, 26, who was being treated at a Red Cross centre in Adamuz.
Limping and with plasters across her face, she described how fellow passengers dragged her out of the train covered in blood. Firefighters rescued her pregnant sister from the wreckage and an ambulance took them both to hospital.
"There were people who were fine and others who were very, very badly injured... you knew they were going to die, and you couldn’t do anything," she said.
The death toll was among the 20 highest from a train crash in Europe in 80 years, according to Eurostat data, and the highest in Spain since 2013, when a train derailed in the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela, killing 80.
Warnings of 'wear and tear'
Spanish train drivers had warned state-owned rail infrastructure administrator Adif of “severe wear and tear” on the Madrid-Andalusia line and others, according to a letter seen by Reuters sent to Adif by train drivers' union Semaf in August and urging stricter speed restrictions.
Adif had no immediate comment.
The Iryo train, a Frecciarossa 1000, was under four years old and the railway line near Adamuz was renovated last May, Puente said. Iryo said the train was last inspected on 15 January.
Spain's high-speed railway network is the largest in Europe and second-largest in the world after China with 3,622 km of tracks, according to Adif.
The government was criticised last year for a series of delays to high-speed rail, caused by power outages and the theft of copper cables from the lines.
Spain opened up the network to private competition in 2020 in a bid to offer low-cost alternatives to Renfe's Ave trains.
Iryo is a joint venture between Italian state railway operator Ferrovie dello Stato, airline Air Nostrum and Spanish infrastructure investment fund Globalvia.
Yemen’s Houthis have claimed responsibility for the recent drone and missile strikes on Saudi Aramco facilities in Dhahran and Riyadh and at ...
Ukraine's soldiers have had their access to Starlink satellite internet restricted. Kyiv's troops use the terminals, made by Elon Musk...
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Israeli counterpart, Isaac Herzog, met on 14 October to discuss bilateral ties and key regional and inte...
Yemen’s Houthis have claimed responsibility for the recent drone and missile strikes on Saudi Aramco facilities in Dhahran and Riyadh and at King Khalid International Airport in Saudi Arabia, vowing to carry out more attacks in the coming days.
The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said late Monday that it intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles launched by the Houthi group toward Khamis Mushait in southwestern Saudi Arabia.
Thousands of young Georgians leave the country each year in search of better economic opportunities, with many moving west. As questions grow over Georgia’s European path, AnewZ spoke to people who have emigrated about what it would take for them to return.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia hit at least six energy targets in deadly strikes across Ukraine, showing Moscow is unwilling to accept the energy ceasefire announced by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Ukraine's soldiers have had their access to Starlink satellite internet restricted. Kyiv's troops use the terminals, made by Elon Musk's SpaceX, to pilot drones. A source in Ukraine's Defence Ministry said the restrictions would make it harder for Kyiv's army to down Russian drones.
Ukraine's soldiers have had their access to Starlink satellite internet restricted. Kyiv's troops use the terminals, made by Elon Musk's SpaceX, to pilot drones. A source in Ukraine's Defence Ministry said the restrictions would make it harder for Kyiv's army to down Russian drones.
A 62-year-old man died on Wednesday after floodwaters swept his car into the sea on the Greek island of Rhodes, as torrential rain flooded roads, stranded vehicles and disrupted transport across the island.
A failure by the U.S. and Iran to reach an agreement on a UN-backed fertiliser shipping plan for the Strait of Hormuz within weeks could trigger a food security crisis in parts of Asia and Africa, a senior UN official has warned.
Pope Leo has been diagnosed with lung adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer, after surgeons removed the lower lobe of his right lung. The Vatican says the tumour was detected during a routine health check, but its stage and whether it has spread remain unknown.
Greek students braved heavy rain to pitch tents outside parliament in Athens on Tuesday, demanding affordable housing and more education funding as rising living costs put university places beyond the reach of some students.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment