Spain mourned its deadliest rail disaster in more than a decade as the death toll from a high-speed train collision in Andalusia rose to 42 and a second accident near Barcelona killed one person and injured dozens. King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia visited the crash site and met survivors Tuesday as the government pledged a full, transparent investigation.
The first crash occurred late Sunday when an Iryo-operated train traveling from Malaga to Madrid derailed near Adamuz in southern Spain. The train crossed onto the opposite track and collided with an oncoming service bound for the coastal city of Huelva, sending both trains off the rails. More than 500 passengers were aboard the two trains, regional officials said. The Andalusian government said the confirmed death toll reached 42 by late Tuesday after recovery teams found another body in the wreckage.
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Dressed in dark clothing, the king and queen shook hands with exhausted emergency workers against a backdrop of mangled carriages. They later visited a hospital in nearby Cordoba where some of the injured were being treated. “Convey the affection of the entire country,” King Felipe told reporters he had urged staff to share with victims and families.
Among the wounded was Santiago Salvador, a Portuguese national who broke a leg. “I was thrown through the carriage, it felt like being on a carousel,” he told Portugal’s public broadcaster RTP, his face marked by cuts. “It was a very tragic accident; it looked like hell. There were people who were very seriously injured.”
Hours after Spain began three days of national mourning, a separate rail disaster struck in Catalonia when a commuter train ploughed into rubble from a collapsed wall near Barcelona. One person died and four were seriously injured, regional emergency services said. Crews treated 37 people, mostly for light injuries. Spanish rail infrastructure operator Adif said the wall fell as a consequence of a storm, adding that Catalan commuter services would remain suspended while investigators and maintenance teams worked at the scene.
The government vowed to determine why Sunday’s high-speed derailment happened on a straight section of track where officials said both trains were traveling within the 250 kph limit. Spanish media reported the probe is focusing on a crack more than 30 centimeters long at the accident site. The fracture may have stemmed from a poor weld or deterioration over time due to traffic or weather, according to technicians cited by El Mundo.
Transport Minister Oscar Puente said investigators are working to establish whether a broken section of rail was “the cause or the result” of the derailment. He noted the Iryo train was “practically new” and the track had been recently renovated, calling the circumstances “extremely strange.”
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said sabotage “was never considered” and that authorities had seen no evidence suggesting otherwise. The head of state rail operator Renfe, Alvaro Fernandez Heredia, said human error had “been practically ruled out.”
Adif introduced a temporary 160 kph speed limit on parts of the Madrid-Barcelona high-speed corridor after train drivers reported bumps on the line. The operator said maintenance crews would inspect the tracks overnight and expected to lift the restriction if no issues were found.
Flags flew at half-staff on public buildings, television anchors wore black, and cabinet ministers curtailed public appearances as Spain observed the first day of mourning. The collision near Adamuz is the country’s deadliest rail accident since 2013, when 80 people died after a train veered off a curve near Santiago de Compostela.
Authorities urged patience as forensic teams identified victims and engineers combed wreckage for clues. Recovery operations continued into the night at both sites as Spain reckoned with the twin shocks to a rail network that has long been a point of national pride.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
