A high-speed train derailed and was hit by another in southern Spain, killing at least 39 people and injuring more than 120, authorities said yesterday.
It was the deadliest train accident since 2013, when 80 people died after a train veered off a curved section of track outside the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela.
The crash happened on Sunday evening when a train operated by rail company Iryo traveling from Malaga to Madrid derailed near Adamuz in Andalucia.
Photo: Reuters
It crossed onto the other track, where it crashed into an oncoming train, which also derailed.
Spanish Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility Oscar Puente said at least 39 people died, warning that the toll was “not definitive” and could still rise.
“I want to express my deepest gratitude for the tremendous work of the rescue teams throughout the night, under very difficult circumstances,” he said on social media.
About 123 other people were injured, including five very seriously and 24 seriously, the Spanish Ministry of the Interior said.
Unlike the 2013 accident, the derailment took place on a straight part of the track which had been completely renovated, Puente said.
The first train to derail was “practically new,” making the accident “extremely strange” and “very difficult to explain,” he said.
Rail experts “are very surprised by this accident,” he added.
Iryo said that the locomotive was built in 2022 and last inspected on Thursday last week, adding that it “veered onto the adjacent track for still unknown reasons.”
About 300 people were on board its service from Malaga to Madrid, the company said.
Renfe, the operator of the second train, has not said how many passengers were on the service, which was traveling to Huelva.
Emergency services said they struggled to free the hundreds of passengers trapped in the wreckage.
“The problem is that the carriages are twisted, so the metal is twisted with the people inside,” Francisco Carmona, head of firefighters in Cordoba, told public broadcaster RTVE.
“We have even had to remove a dead person to be able to reach someone alive. It is hard, tricky work,” he said.
A passenger on the second train who gave only her first name, Montse, told Spanish public television that the train jolted, “came to a complete stop and everything went dark.”
She described being thrown around in the carriage at the back end of the train and seeing luggage tumble onto other passengers.
“The attendant behind me hit her head and was bleeding. There were children crying,” she said. “Luckily, I was in the last car. I feel like I was given a second chance at life.”
In Taipei, the government yesterday expressed its condolences to Spain.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that its representative office in Madrid had so far found no Taiwanese injured or killed in the accident.
The ministry said that it has also asked the office to convey the condolences of Taiwanese and the government and concern over the incident to Spain.
Meanwhile, the ministry advised Taiwanese in Spain who require emergency assistance to call the representative office at 639-384-883, or ask family members in Taiwan to contact the ministry’s all-hours toll-free emergency hotline at 0800-085-095.
Additional reporting by CNA
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