Spain has deployed heavy machinery to search for missing bodies in the wreckage of the train crash

By Nina Lopez and Michael Francis Gore

ADAMUZ, Spain, Jan 20 (Reuters) – Spanish rescuers on Tuesday used cranes and heavy machinery to gain access to the worst-hit vehicles in Europe’s deadliest train crash to recover the remains of people still missing in the disaster that killed at least 41 people.

Spaniards are reeling after the first fatal crash on the country’s extensive high-speed rail network on Sunday evening near Adamuz in Córdoba province, 360 kilometers (223 miles) south of Madrid. Experts say a faulty rail joint can be key to finding the cause of a collision between two trains.

Emergency services used the ground overnight and in the early hours of Tuesday to level the ground around the front carriages of the state-run Alvia service train, which plunged 4 meters (13.1 feet) down the embankment after the crash, and the rear carriages of the train operated by the private consortium, state-run Consortium Eryusian said in a regional statement.

According to the government, two cranes have been added for rescue.

The collision occurred in olive-growing countryside at the foot of a mountain range at a site only accessible by a single-track road, making it difficult for rescuers to access with heavy machinery.

Another body was found overnight in the wreckage of the Irio train, which derailed and caused the crash, raising the death toll to 41, officials said on Tuesday.

There are still bodies trapped in the rubble

At least three bodies are still trapped in the rubble, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlasca said at a news conference on Tuesday.

He said police had received 43 missing-person reports, which corresponds to a tentative death toll, but warned that the final number would not be confirmed until rescue teams had recovered what was underneath the most affected vehicles.

Some relatives waited for news of their loved ones as authorities worked to identify the dead.

Osiris Sevilla described her anxiety as she waited outside an emergency center in Córdoba for news about her husband.

“Every second that passes lasts a lifetime,” she said, adding that she had not given up hope of living.

“He doesn’t like trains … since we’ve been together, this is the first time he’s taken a train,” she said.

Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia visited the scene on Tuesday and spoke to residents, including 16-year-old Julio Rodriguez, who was the first to arrive at the crash site with his mother and a friend.

He described the scene to El Mundo newspaper as “like a massacre … bodies in pieces, arms and legs scattered here and there.”

Survivors also spoke of their ordeal.

Lola Beltran told TVE that she changed carriages minutes before the crash, moving from her assigned seat to another vehicle to sit with a colleague in one of the hardest-hit cars.

“We had to break windows with emergency hammers and open doors to get out,” Beltran said, describing scenes of chaos, screaming and torn seats.

Broken Rail: Cause or Effect?

Transportation Minister Oscar Puente asked for patience as the investigation proceeds. He said all hypotheses were open but it was “very strange” for the rear of a train that had not exceeded the speed limit to derail on a straight stretch.

The discovery of the broken train was “another piece of data” and by itself does not prove any single scenario, Puente said. The main question is whether it was the cause or the result of the derailment, he said.

A photo circulated by Spanish police showing a broken train with a marker “1” next to it suggests the break was at or very close to the initial point, Scottish railway engineer and author Gareth Dennis told Reuters.

He said the track ahead of the break appeared to be intact, making it a possible trigger for the train to derail.

Dennis also said the fracture appeared close to the rail weld, where the steel near the weld could be a weak spot. Cold weather can increase tensile stress as the rails shrink, he said.

“Why the train broke is an interesting question,” Dennis said, rather than why the train derailed.

Puente said services on the line between Andalusia and Madrid should be restored by February 2.

National carrier Iberia said it would add more daily flights from Madrid to Seville and Malaga and raise ticket prices to 99 euros ($116) to meet increased demand.

($1 = 0.8516 euros)

(Writing by David Latona and Charlie Devereux; Editing by Charlie Devereux, Tomas Janowski and Gareth Jones)