Death toll in Spanish train collision rises to 39 and authorities say it could still rise

ADAMUZ, Spain (AP) — Spanish police said Monday that at least 39 people are confirmed dead in a high-speed train collision the previous night in the south of the country, as efforts to recover the bodies continue with authorities expecting the death toll to rise.

The crash occurred Sunday at 7:45 p.m. when the tail end of a train carrying some 300 passengers on the route from Malaga to the capital, Madrid, went off the rails at 7:45 p.m. It slammed into an incoming train traveling from Madrid to Huelva, another southern Spanish city, according to rail operator Adif.

The head of the second train, which was carrying nearly 200 passengers, took the brunt of the impact, Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente said. That collision knocked its first two carriages off the track and sent them plummeting down a 4-meter (13-foot) slope. Puente said that it appeared the largest number of the deaths occurred in those carriages.

Andalusia regional president Juanma Moreno said Monday morning that emergency services were still searching what he described as a mass of twisted metal where the smashed carriages had derailed.

“It is likely (that there will be more dead people found) when you look at the mass of metal that is there. The firefighters have done a great job, but unfortunately when they get the heavy machinery to lift the carriages it is probable we will find more victims.”

“Here at ground zero, when you look at this mass of twisted iron, you see the violence of the impact.”

Video and photos showed twisted train cars lying on their sides under floodlights late on Sunday. Passengers reported climbing out of smashed windows, with some using emergency hammers to break the windows, according to Salvador Jiménez, a journalist for Spanish broadcaster RTVE, who was on board one of the derailed trains.

He told the network by phone Sunday that “there was a moment when it felt like an earthquake and the train had indeed derailed.”

Spanish police said 159 people were injured, of whom five were in critical condition. A further 24 were in serious condition, authorities said.

The collision took place near Adamuz, a town in the province of Cordoba, about 370 kilometers (about 230 miles) south of Madrid.

A sports center was turned into a makeshift hospital in Adamuz and the Spanish Red Cross set up a help center offering assistance to emergency services and people seeking information. Members of Spain’s civil guard and civil defense worked on site throughout the night.

Officials call accident ‘strange’

Transport Minister Puente early Monday said the cause of the crash was unknown.

He called it “a truly strange” incident because it happened on a flat stretch of track that had been renovated in May. He also said the train that jumped the track was less than 4 years old. That train belonged to the private company Iryo, while the second train, which took the brunt of the impact, was part of Spain’s public train company, Renfe.

According to Puente, the back part of the first train derailed and crashed into the head of the other train. When asked by reporters how long an inquiry into the crash’s cause could take, he said it could be a month.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed his condolences to the victims' families. “Tonight is a night of deep pain for our country,” he wrote on X.

The prime minister will visit the accident site on Monday, according to his office.

Spain leads Europe in high-speed trains

Spain has the largest rail network in Europe for trains moving over 250 kph (155 mph), with more than 3,100 kilometers (1,900 miles) of track, according to the European Union.