At least 40 people have died after two high-speed trains collided in Spain

By Nina Lopez and Michael Francis Gore

ADAMUZ, Spain, Jan 19 (Reuters) – At least 40 people were killed in southern Spain on Sunday after a high-speed train derailed in Europe’s worst train accident in 80 years.

Twelve people were in intensive care after the crash near Adamuz in Córdoba province, about 360 kilometers (223 miles) south of Madrid, according to emergency services. Experts say a faulty train joint may be key to determining the cause of the accident.

“The train came to one side … then everything went dark, and I heard everyone screaming,” said Ana García Aranda, 26, who was being treated at the Red Cross center in Adamaz.

Limping and wearing plaster on his face, he described how fellow passengers dragged him off the train covered in blood. Firefighters rescued his pregnant sister from the wreckage and an ambulance took them both to the hospital.

“There were people who were fine and others who were very, very badly injured … you knew they were going to die, and there was nothing you could do,” she said.

Police headquarters in Huelva, Madrid, Malaga, Córdoba and Seville have so far registered 43 missing persons reports, officials said.

Remote location complicates rescue

The accident, which occurred in a mountainous, olive-growing area accessible only by a single-track road, made it difficult for ambulances to reach the area, Inigo Villa, national emergencies director of the Spanish Red Cross, told Reuters.

The president of the Andalusia region, Juan Manuel Moreno, said at least 40 people had died and that heavy equipment needed to lift the rubble and reach those underneath was having difficulty.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez canceled a visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and Transport Minister Oscar Puente visited the site on Monday.

Police drone footage showed how the train carrying 527 people stopped 500 meters away. A train carriage split in two, and the locomotive was crushed like a tin can.

Experts studying the accident site found a broken joint in the rails, which created a gap between the train sections that widened as it continued to travel on the track, according to sources briefed on the preliminary investigation.

That faulty joint could prove crucial in identifying the cause of the accident, the source said.

“Interaction between Track and Vehicle”

Ignacio Barron, head of Spain’s Commission for the Investigation of Train Accidents (CIAF), told RTVE: “The interaction between the track and the vehicle is something that always plays a role in train accidents, and this is what the commission is currently (looking at).”

“A dead child was found inside, another child was calling for his mother. You are never prepared to see something like this,” said Paki, a resident of Adamjuz, who rushed to help rescue survivors with her husband.

The police said that they have opened an office in Cordoba for relatives to provide DNA samples to identify the deceased.

The Erio train was traveling from Malaga to Madrid at 110 kilometers per hour when it derailed, Renfe president Alvaro Fernández Heredia said on radio station Cadena Ser.

Twenty seconds later, a second train heading towards Huelva at a speed of 200 km/h either collided with the last two coaches of the Erio train or collided with debris on the line, he said. The Erio train has lost a wheel which is yet to be found.

The accident occurred in ‘strange circumstances’

It was too early to talk about the cause, but it happened under “strange circumstances,” Fernandez Heredia said, adding that human error was virtually ruled out.

It was the deadliest train crash in Europe in 20 years, according to Eurostat figures, and the deadliest in Spain since 2013, when a train crashed in the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela.

Spanish train drivers warned state-owned rail infrastructure administrator Adif of “serious bruises and tears” on the Madrid-Andalusia line and others, according to a letter sent to Adif by the train drivers’ union Semaf in August, urging stricter speed restrictions and seen by Reuters.

Adif had no immediate comment.

The Erio train, a Frichiarosa 1000, was less than four years old and the railway line near Adamuz was repaired last May, Puente said. Irio said the train was last inspected on January 15.

According to Edif, Spain’s high-speed railway network is the largest in Europe and the second largest in the world after China with 3,622 km of tracks.

The government was criticized last year for a series of delays to high-speed rail, including power cuts and the theft of copper wires from the lines.

Spain opened the network to private competition in 2020 to offer low-cost alternatives to Renfe’s Ave trains.

Erio is a joint venture between Italian state railway operator Ferrovi dello Stato, airline Air Nostrum and Spanish infrastructure investment fund Globalvia.

($1 = 0.8604 euros)

(Reporting by Nina Lopez, Michael Gore, Leonardo Benastto, Susana Vera, Emma Pinedo and Victoria Valdersi; Additional reporting by Pietro Lombardi and Jesus Aguado; Writing by Charlie Devereux; Editing by David Latona, Sharon Singleton, Bernadette Baum and Deepa Bau)