At least 39 people were killed in southern Spain on Sunday night when a high-speed train derailed and collided with an oncoming service in one of the deadliest railway accidents in Europe in the past eight decades.
The crash occurred near Adamuz, in the province of Córdoba, roughly 360 kilometres (223 miles) south of Madrid. Twelve passengers remain in intensive care, according to emergency services. Early investigations suggest that a faulty rail joint may have played a critical role in the disaster.
“The train tipped to one side… then everything went dark, and all I heard were screams,” said 26-year-old Ana Garcia Aranda, a passenger travelling back to Madrid.
Treated at a Red Cross centre in Adamuz, she described how fellow passengers pulled her from the wreckage while she was covered in blood. Firefighters rescued her pregnant sister, and both were taken to hospital.
“There were people who were fine and others who were very, very badly injured. You had them right in front of you, and you knew they were going to die, and you couldn’t do anything,” she recalled.
The collision occurred in a hilly, olive-growing region accessible only by a single-track road, hampering the arrival of emergency vehicles. “We were struggling to bring in heavy machinery to lift the wreckage and reach more of the victims,” said Juan Manuel Moreno, President of the Andalusia region.
National Emergency Director of the Spanish Red Cross, Iñigo Vila, confirmed the difficult terrain complicated rescue efforts.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez cancelled his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, while Transport Minister Óscar Puente visited the crash site on Monday.
Drone footage released by police showed the trains lying 500 metres apart, with one carriage split in two and the locomotive crushed. Emergency teams are continuing efforts to recover victims and clear the wreckage.
Preliminary investigations indicate that a broken rail joint may have caused the derailment. The gap between the rails reportedly widened as trains continued to travel along the track, according to sources familiar with the investigation. Authorities are treating the cause as a key focus in understanding the catastrophic collision.
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