At least 39 people were killed and more than 120 injured late Sunday after a high speed passenger train derailed and struck an oncoming train in southern Spain, authorities said, marking the country’s worst railway disaster since 2013.
The collision occurred at about 7:45 p.m. local time near the town of Adamuz in Cordoba province, roughly 360 kilometers south of Madrid. Emergency services said 48 injured passengers remained hospitalized on Monday, including 12 in intensive care.
The scale of the tragedy prompted a national response, with Spain’s prime minister and transport minister traveling to the crash site as investigations began.
Ana, a passenger traveling to Madrid, described the moment of impact while receiving treatment at a Red Cross center in Adamuz.
“The train tipped to one side, then everything went dark and all I heard was screams,” she said.
She said fellow passengers pulled her through a broken window while she was covered in blood. Firefighters later rescued her sister from the wreckage before both were taken to hospital.
“There were people who were fine and others who were very badly injured,” Ana said. “You could see people who were going to die and there was nothing you could do.”
Emergency officials said the response was complicated by the crash location, which could only be reached by a single narrow road.
“The access made it very difficult for ambulances to enter and leave,” Iñigo Vila, national emergency director for the Spanish Red Cross, told Reuters.
Transport Minister Oscar Puente confirmed that the death toll had reached 39 and warned that the figure could still change as recovery operations continued.
Around 400 passengers were aboard the two trains involved, operated by Iryo and Alvia, according to state rail operator Renfe. One train was traveling from Malaga to Madrid, while the other was heading toward Huelva.
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Authorities said it was too early to determine what caused the derailment and collision.
Renfe president Álvaro Fernández Heredia told Cadena Ser radio that the incident occurred under “strange conditions” and said human error was unlikely.
Spain’s rail safety investigators have opened a formal inquiry and are expected to examine signaling systems, track conditions, and train speed data in the coming days.
The crash is the deadliest rail accident in Spain since 2013, when a train derailment in Galicia killed 79 people.