Spain to hold three days of mourning after train crash that killed at least 40 | Spain

Spain will begin three days of mourning on Tuesday as rescuers continue to sift through the wreckage of twisted train carriages and strewn debris following the train crash that killed at least 40 people and injured dozens more.

On Monday, more than 18 hours after a Madrid-bound high-speed train carrying nearly 300 passengers derailed and collided with an oncoming train, people across the country were still trying to contact missing loved ones caught up in Spain’s worst rail disaster in more than a decade.

Juan Barroso said five members of his extended family were among about 200 people who took the train from Madrid to the southern city of Huelva. After the collision near Adamuz in Córdoba province, it was announced that only a six-year-old child was rescued.

“We are now looking for the four missing people,” Barroso told reporters. “We went everywhere. Every hospital in Jaén, Úbeda and Córdoba.”

Others took to social media to post photos of their loved ones and implore people to get in touch. “If anyone in Adamuz knows this man, he is my father, please contact me,” one message read.

Police said they have opened several offices where people can report and “give DNA samples for identification purposes.”

Speaking to reporters during a visit to the region, the country’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, promised that the investigation into the cause of the crash would be full and transparent.

“Like all of us, the Spanish community is wondering what happened, how it happened, how this tragedy occurred,” he told reporters as he declared three days of mourning starting at midnight on Monday. “And I believe that time and the work of experts will provide us with these answers.”

The collision occurred just before 8pm on Sunday night, when the rear of the Madrid-bound train derailed and came into the path of an oncoming train.

Spain’s transport minister, Óscar Puente, said that due to the impact, the first two carriages of the southbound train derailed and fell down a 4-meter (13ft) slope.

Although the cause of the crash has not yet been determined, he described it as “really odd” that the derailment occurred on a straight road. He added that this particular episode was renewed in May.

Iryo, the private company that operates the train, said in a statement on Monday that the derailed train was less than four years old and was inspected four days ago.

Álvaro Fernández Heredia, president of the state railway company Renfe, said it was too early to talk about the cause of the incident. However, in a statement to SER, broadcaster Cadena stated that the accident occurred in “bizarre circumstances” and added that “human error has been almost completely eliminated”.

A source told Reuters that technicians at the site detected a broken joint in the rails, creating a gap between sections of track that widened as trains continued to move on the track. The faulty connection could be important in determining the exact cause of the accident, the source added.

Neither Adif, the state-owned rail infrastructure manager, nor the Spanish commission tasked with investigating rail accidents responded to requests for comment.

Adif has publicly flagged 10 infrastructure problems in the area where the collision occurred since 2022, from signal failures to overhead power lines. In August, the union representing train drivers said in a letter that increased rail traffic was causing serious wear and tear on the tracks, leading to frequent breakdowns and train damage.

On Monday, the train drivers’ union emphasized that the cause of the collision was unknown and called for caution in associating its previous warnings with the accident.

As reports of the collision began to circulate Sunday evening, emergency workers rushed to the remote area where it occurred.

Battered by darkness and largely confined to the single-track road leading into and out of the area, the team worked through the night to pull people from the rubble. Some passengers managed to slide out of overturned carriages and piles of twisted steel on their own, using emergency hammers to break windows.

Adamuz mayor Rafael Moreno told Europa Press that he was one of the first to arrive at the scene. “It was terrible,” he said. “It was an extremely difficult and sad night.”

The small Andalusian town, located in the countryside a few kilometers from the crash site, was deeply shocked on Monday.

The town’s town hall had been hastily converted into an impromptu response centre, where many of the crash victims were brought for first aid, food and warmth before being taken elsewhere.

Authorities warned that the death toll could increase. Juanma Moreno, the head of the Andalusian government, told broadcaster Cope: “Some of the wagons are in a very worn-out, very sad state. I was told that they are twisted wrecks, which makes things very difficult. We have to use mechanical vehicles and heavy machinery.”

He said the search area had been expanded beyond the crash site. “The impact was so violent that we found bodies hundreds of meters away, which means people were thrown out of windows.”

The accident shook Spain, where its state-of-the-art rail network has long been a source of pride. 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 approximately 4,000 kilometers.

Renfe said that more than 25 million passengers will travel on high-speed trains in 2024.