At least 40 people died in southern Spain after a high-speed train derailed and collided with another oncoming train on Sunday evening, in one of the worst rail accidents in Europe in 80 years.
Twelve people were in intensive care after the accident near Adamas in Cordoba province, about 360 kilometers south of Madrid, emergency services said. Experts said a faulty rail connection could be key to determining the cause of the collision.
"The train leaned to one side... and then everything went dark and all I heard were screams," said Ana Garcia Aranda, 26, who was receiving treatment at the Red Cross center in Adamas.
She described how other passengers pulled her from the train, covered in blood. Firefighters rescued her pregnant sister from the wreckage, and an ambulance took them both to 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.
The crash happened in a hilly olive-growing area with only a one-way road, making it difficult for ambulances to reach the scene, Inigo Vila, national director of emergencies for the Spanish Red Cross, told Reuters.
The president of the autonomous region of Andalusia, Juan Manuel Moreno, said that at least 40 people had died, and that rescue teams had difficulty delivering the heavy machinery needed to lift the wreckage and reach those still trapped underneath.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez canceled a trip to the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, and Transport Minister Oscar Puente visited the scene of the accident yesterday.
Police drone footage showed the trains stopped about 500 meters apart. One carriage was cut in half and the locomotive was crushed like a tin can.
Experts examining the crash site found a broken rail joint that created a gap between sections of track and widened as trains continued to run on the line, a source familiar with the initial investigation said. The faulty joint could be important in determining the cause of the crash, the source added.
Pakui, an Adamus resident who came to help rescue survivors with her husband, said he "found a dead child inside and another child calling for its mother. You're never prepared to see something like that."
The Irijo train was traveling at 110 kilometers per hour on the Malaga-Madrid line when it derailed, Renfe president Alvaro Fernandez Heredia said on the radio.
Twenty seconds later, a second train, traveling toward Huelva at 200 kilometers per hour, either collided with the last two cars of the Irijo train or hit debris on the track, he said. The Irijo train lost a wheel that has not yet been found.
It is too early to say what caused the accident, but it occurred under "strange circumstances," Fernandez Heredia said.
Spanish train drivers warned state rail infrastructure manager Adif in August of "serious wear and tear" on the Madrid-Andalusia line and other sections, calling for stricter speed limits, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
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