Dozens have been killed and over 100 injured after a high-speed train crashed in Spain
According to reports, the death toll is expected to rise after the Madrid-bound train derailed in Adamuz, near Córdoba in southern Spain, on Sunday evening, January 18.
An unknown number of people are trapped, according to railway operator ADIF.
It has been confirmed that a total of 300 passengers were on board one of the trains, an Iyro service from Malaga.
Salvador Jimïnez, a journalist for Spanish broadcaster RTVE, was on board one of the derailed trains during the horror crash.
He recalled: “There was a moment when it felt like an earthquake and the train had indeed derailed.”
He said passengers used emergency hammers to break the windows, and that some had walked away without serious injuries.
Videos from the scene show people crawling out of windows to escape the wreckage with carriages leaning at an angle.
Maria San José, 33, a passenger on the Malaga-to-Madrid high-speed train that first derailed, said that there are many injured.
“I am still trembling,” she told El Pais.
The operator of the high-speed train that derailed has said that the vehicle was carrying around 300 passengers at the time of the incident.
The train came off the tracks at 7.45pm local time according to rail operator Adif, only ten minutes after the train left Cordoba.
The second train was part of Spain’s public train company Renfe and took the brunt of the impact. Renfe have not said how many passengers the train was carrying.
Regional health and emergencies minister Antonio Sanz has warned that the de@th toll is set to rise as both it and injury numbers are provisional figures. Sanz is the third official to issue the same warning about an oncoming increase to the de@th toll.
Spanish Minister of Transport Óscar Puente and Andalusian president Moreno Bonilla have both said essentially the same thing earlier in the night, as authorities appear fear the worst as search and rescue efforts continue.
Sanz added that the rescue operation is “very complex” with access to some carriages hampered. Three have plunged down a four-metre embankment, making a difficult recovery process even tougher on rescuers as they battle on rescuing survivors.
Specialist teams from the surrounding regions are also being sent in to help.
Additional firefighters, paramedics, search and rescue, specialist medical, forensic scientists, psychologists, and more have all been tasked to assist at the mass casualty event, coming from surrounding parts of Spain.
Fire crews already at the scene are having to sift through the de@d to reach the trapped yet still living, Córdoba Fire Consortium director Francisco Carmona told the press.
