ADAMUZ, Spain (AP) — Spanish police stated Monday that a minimum of 39 folks died within the high-speed prepare collision Sunday in southern Spain and rescue efforts had been persevering with.
The collision occurred when the tail finish of a prepare touring between Malaga and Madrid with some 300 passengers went off the rails close to Cordoba at 7:45 p.m. It slammed into an incoming prepare from Madrid to Huelva, one other southern Spanish metropolis, in keeping with rail operator Adif.
Earlier within the morning, Andalusian regional chief Juan Moreno stated 75 passengers had been hospitalized, 15 in critical situation. Most had been taken to Cordoba, about 390 kilometers (242 miles) south of Madrid.
Francisco J. Olmo/Europa Press by way of Getty Pictures
The Spanish Pink Cross arrange a assist middle within the city of Adamuz, close to the crash website, providing help to emergency providers and other people searching for data. Members of Spain’s civil guard and civil protection labored on website all through the evening.
Video and pictures confirmed twisted prepare automobiles mendacity on their sides below floodlights. Passengers reported climbing out of smashed home windows, with some utilizing emergency hammers to interrupt the home windows, in keeping with Salvador Jiménez, a journalist for Spanish broadcaster RTVE, who was on board one of many derailed trains.
He instructed the community by telephone that “there was a second when it felt like an earthquake and the prepare had certainly derailed.”
Officers Name Accident ‘Unusual’
Spain’s Transport Minister Óscar Puente early Monday stated the reason for the crash was unknown.
He referred to as it “a very unusual” incident as a result of it occurred on a flat stretch of monitor that had been renovated in Could. He additionally stated the prepare that jumped the monitor was lower than 4 years previous. That prepare belonged to the non-public firm Iryo, whereas the second prepare, which took the brunt of the affect, was a part of Spain’s public prepare firm Renfe.
Based on Puente, the again a part of the primary prepare derailed and crashed into the pinnacle of the opposite prepare, knocking its first two carriages off the monitor and down a 4-meter (13-foot) slope. He stated the worst harm was to the entrance part of the Renfe prepare.
When requested by reporters how lengthy an inquiry into the crash’s trigger might take, he stated it may very well be a month.
Spain Leads Europe In Excessive-Pace Trains
Spain has the biggest high-speed rail community in Europe for trains shifting over 250 kph (155 mph), with greater than 3,100 kilometers (1,900 miles) of monitor, in keeping with the European Union.
The community is a well-liked, competitively priced and protected mode of transport. Renfe stated greater than 25 million passengers took one in all its high-speed trains in 2024.
Practice providers between Madrid and cities in Andalusia had been cancelled Monday.
Spain’s worst prepare accident this century occurred in 2013, when 80 people died after a prepare derailed within the nation’s northwest. An investigation concluded the prepare was touring 179 kph (111 mph) on a stretch with an 80 kph (50 mph) velocity restrict when it left the tracks.
Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain, and Naishadham from Madrid. AP journalist Barry Hatton contributed from Lisbon, Portugal.
