Latest train collision in Spain: at least 21 dead and more than 100 injured

Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente told reporters at a news conference at Madrid’s Atocha station that the cause of the accident was not yet known, adding that it was “really strange” that the derailment occurred on a straight track. He added that this stretch of track had been updated in May.

The second train, operated by state-funded Renfe, was reportedly traveling to Huelva and was traveling at about 200 km/h when it hit nation.

It’s unclear how fast the first train was traveling when it derailed.

Maria San José, 33, a passenger on the Malaga-Madrid high-speed train that initially derailed, said many people were injured. “I’m still shaking,” she told nation.

An unnamed passenger on the second train told public broadcaster TVE: “There were people screaming and their luggage fell from the racks. Luckily I took the fourth car (the last car) to Huelva.”

According to reports, those killed in the accident included the 27-year-old driver of the Madrid-Huelva train, which crashed head-on into a derailed carriage of another train. nation newspaper.

“The force of the accident was very high… we may find (more) bodies,” said Juanma Moreno, head of Andalusia’s local government, adding that heavy machinery would be needed to remove metal debris from the train wreck and try to find new victims.

The two trains carried about 400 passengers, mostly Spaniards traveling to and from Madrid after the weekend. It’s unclear how many tourists were on board, but January is not Spain’s peak holiday season.

According to the EU, Spain has Europe’s largest high-speed rail network, with trains running at speeds in excess of 250 km/h (155 mph) and a track length of more than 3,100 km (1,900 miles).

The network is a popular, competitively priced and secure method of shipping. Renfe said more than 25 million passengers will travel on one of the company’s high-speed trains in 2024.

Rail operator Adif said train services between Madrid and cities in Andalusia would be suspended on Monday. Spain’s worst train accident this century occurred in 2013, when a train derailed in the country’s northwest, killing 80 people.

The investigation concluded that the train was traveling at 179 km/h (111 mph) on a section of road where the speed limit was 80 km/h (50 mph) when it left the tracks.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez “expressed his most sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims.”

“Tonight is a deeply sad night for our country,” he wrote on X.

Spanish King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia also expressed condolences and concerns on social media.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen posted on X that she was following the “terrible news” coming out of Córdoba.

“You are in my thoughts tonight,” she wrote in Spanish.

Cordoba fire chief Francisco Carmona told Spanish national broadcaster RNE that one of the trains was severely damaged and at least four carriages derailed.

Marïa Belïn Moya Rojas, regional civil protection chief, told Canal Sud that the accident occurred in a hard-to-reach area. She added that locals were bringing blankets and water to the scene to help the victims.

Spanish military emergency rescue forces joined other rescue forces in the deployment. The Red Cross also provides support to health care officials.

Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente said the cause of the accident was not yet known. He called the incident “truly bizarre” because it happened on a flat track that had been renovated in May. He also said the train that jumped the tracks was less than four years old.

The train belonged to private company Iryo, while the second train that was hit belonged to Spanish public train company Renfe.

Iryo issued a statement saying it “deeply regrets what happened” and is cooperating with authorities to control the situation.

The rear of the first train derailed and struck the front of the other train, knocking the first two cars off the track and down a 4-meter (13-foot) slope, according to Puente. He said the worst damage was to the front of the Renfe train.

Salvador Jimïnez, a reporter for Spanish broadcaster RTVE, who was on one of the derailed trains, told the station by phone that “for a moment it felt like an earthquake and that the train had actually derailed.”

Passengers used emergency hammers to break windows, and some people walked away without serious injuries, he said. Video from the scene showed people climbing out of windows and escaping the wreckage, with cars tilting.

The incident occurred in the evening near the village of Adamuz and hundreds of survivors had to be rescued in the dark.

Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente updated the death toll to 21 after midnight and said rescuers had moved all survivors. But Puente said there may be more victims yet to be identified.

Juanma Moreno, president of the Andalusia region, said 75 passengers were taken to hospitals, most of them to the nearby city of Córdoba, and 15 of them were seriously injured.

Emergency crews will work through the night to remove bodies from the wreckage, Moreno said. “We are going to have a very difficult night,” Andalusia regional health director Antonio Sanz said.

A high-speed train derailed in southern Spain on Sunday, jumped onto the track in the opposite direction and hit an oncoming train, killing at least 21 people and injuring dozens more, Spain’s transport minister said.

According to railway operator Adif, at 7:45 pm local time, an evening train from Malaga to Madrid, carrying about 300 passengers, derailed near Cerdoba and hit a train carrying about 200 passengers from Madrid to Huelva, another city in southern Spain.