At least 40 killed in Spain after two trains collide
In one of the worst rail accidents in Europe in the last 80 years, at least 40 people died when a high-speed train derailed and collided with the opposite train in southern Spain.
According to emergency services, 12 people were in intensive care after the accident, which occurred near Adamuz in the province of Cordoba, about 360 kilometers south of Madrid.
Experts say a faulty railway connection could be important in determining the cause of the crash.
Spain’s Gobierno was declared national for three days due to the accident in Adamuz. ◾It arrived in an average of 19 hours in the last 24 hours and was extended until July 22.https://t.co/DpYcoEoEWP pic.twitter.com/kZFNuIWKFg— La Moncloa (@desdelamoncloa) January 19, 2026
“The train tipped over to one side… then everything went black and all I heard were screams,” said Ana Garcia Aranda, 26, who was receiving treatment at the Red Cross center in Adamuz.
Limping and with plasters on his face, he described how other passengers dragged him out of the train covered in blood.
While firefighters rescued his pregnant sister from the rubble, the ambulance took him to the hospital.
“There were people who were fine, there were people who were very seriously injured… you knew they were going to die and you couldn’t do anything,” he said.
The collision took place in a hilly, olive-growing area accessible only by a single-track road, making it difficult for ambulances to reach the area, Spanish Red Cross emergency manager Iñigo Vila told Reuters.
Juan Manuel Moreno, president of the Andalusia region, said at least 40 people were killed and emergency crews faced difficulties bringing in the heavy equipment needed to remove the rubble and reach those trapped underneath.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez canceled a trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and Transport Minister Oscar Puente visited the site on Monday.
Police drone footage showed how trains stopped 500 meters apart.
A train car was split in two, and the locomotive was crushed like a tin can.
According to a source with knowledge of the initial investigations, experts examining the crash site found a broken joint in the rails; This created a gap between sections of track that widened as trains continued to move on the track.
This faulty connection could be important in determining the cause of the accident, the source said.
Ignacio Barron, president of the Spanish Commission for the Investigation of Rail Accidents (CIAF), told RTVE: “What always plays a role in derailments is the interaction between the rail and the vehicle, and that is what the commission is currently examining.”
Paqui, an Adamuz resident who helped rescue survivors with her husband, said: “He said he found a dead child inside, another child calling for his mother. You’re never ready to see something like that.”
Police said they opened an office in Cordoba for relatives to provide DNA samples to help identify the dead.
Renfe President Álvaro Fernandez Heredia said in a statement on the Cadena Ser radio station that the Iryo train derailed while traveling from Malaga to Madrid at a speed of 110 km per hour.
Twenty seconds later, the second train, traveling to Huelva at 200 km per hour, collided either with the last two cars of the Iryo train or with debris on the line.
The Iryo train lost a wheel whose location has not yet been determined.
Fernandez Heredia said that it was too early to talk about the cause of the incident, but that it happened in “strange circumstances”, adding that human error had been almost completely eliminated.
According to Eurostat data, the number of deaths in a train accident in Europe in the last 80 years was in the top 20, while in Spain it was the highest death toll since 2013, when a train derailed in the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela, killing 80 people.
According to Adif, Spain’s high-speed railway network is the largest in Europe and the second largest in the world after China, with a line length of 3,622 kilometers.
