MADRID, Jan 18 (Reuters) – Two high-speed trains derailed in southern Spain on Sunday, the rail network operator said, and state broadcaster RTVE said seven people had died, citing police sources.
The incident occurred near Adamuz, in the province of Cordoba. Seven people were confirmed dead by the police, RTVE said, adding that 100 people were injured, 25 seriously.
Spanish police did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
“The train Iryo 6189 Malaga – (to Madrid) came off the track in Adamuz, crashed on the adjacent track. The train (Madrid) to Huelva which was traveling on the adjacent track also came off,” said Adif, who runs the rail network, in a post on social media.
Adif said the incident happened at 6:40 pm (1740 GMT), about ten minutes after the Iryo train left Cordoba for Madrid.
Iryo is a private railway operator, majority owned by the state-controlled Italian railway group Ferrovie dello Stato. The train involved was a Freccia 1000 train that was traveling between Malaga and Madrid, said a spokesman for Ferrovie dello Stato.
Iryo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Adif has suspended all rail services between Madrid and Andalusia.
Andalusia’s emergency services said on social media that all rail traffic had been stopped and emergency services were on their way, including at least nine ambulances and emergency support vehicles.
CALLS FOR MEDICAL
A woman named Carmen sat on X who was on board the Iryo to Madrid. “Ten minutes after departure (from Cordoba) the train started to shake a lot, and it came out of coach 6 behind us. The lights went out.”
Footage posted by another Iryo train passenger, also on X, showed Iryo staff in fluorescent jackets instructing passengers to stay in their seats in the dark carriages, and those with first aid training to keep watch over fellow passengers.
The staff told the passengers that they would be evacuated when it was safe to leave, but at that moment the safest place was on the train. He also encouraged people to keep their mobile phone batteries so they can use their torches when they go down.
The passenger wrote: “In our carriage we are fine but we don’t know about the other carriages. There is smoke and they are asking for a doctor.”
The regional government activated emergency protocols to mobilize more resources to the site of the incident. The locals published on social media that a building will be set up in the village closest to the crash to take the evacuated passengers.
Salvador Jimenez, an RTVE journalist who was on board the Iryo train, shared images showing the nose of the rear carriage of the train lying on its side, with the evacuated passengers sitting on the side of the carriage facing upwards.
Jimenez told TVE by phone from near the affected trains that the passengers had used emergency hammers to break the windows and climb out, and they had seen two people being taken out of the overturned carriages on stretchers.
“There is a certain uncertainty about when we will arrive in Madrid, where we will spend the night, we still haven’t had any message from the train company,” he said. “It’s very cold but here we are.”
(Reporting by Graham Keeley and Aislinn Laing; Additional reporting by Giulia Segreti; Editing by Nia Williams)