Spain’s Train Derailment Leaves Over Twenty Dead
The tragedy unfolded around 7:40 p.m. local time near Adamuz, Cordoba, when a Malaga-to-Madrid passenger train jumped the tracks and invaded a neighboring line. The derailment triggered a chain-reaction collision as a southbound Madrid-to-Huelva train plowed into the wreckage, throwing its front carriages off the rails.
Andalusia region's President, Juanma Moreno, revealed that 15 victims remain in critical condition, while medical personnel established a field hospital to treat approximately 170 people suffering minor injuries, according to a public broadcaster. Separate reports from authorities cited by media indicate at least 25 individuals are fighting for their lives in serious condition.
Transport Minister Oscar Puente confirmed via the U.S. social media platform X that the initial two carriages of the second train were "thrown off" the tracks. He acknowledged receiving "very grave" reports from the disaster zone.
Addressing journalists in the early hours of Monday, Puente labeled the incident "strange," emphasizing that it occurred along a perfectly straight track section that underwent extensive €700 million ($728 million) renovations completed just eight months prior in May. The minister noted the infrastructure was "supposedly in perfect state" and the train itself was "relatively new" at merely four years old.
Rafael Moreno, Adamuz's Mayor and among the first responders alongside local law enforcement, delivered a harrowing account to a Spanish newspaper: "I saw a passenger reduced to rags," he stated. "There was no light, it was nighttime. The scene is horrific."
The catastrophe forced immediate suspension of all high-speed rail operations linking Madrid and Andalusia. Officials announced the critical corridor would remain shuttered throughout Monday, January 19.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez scrapped his entire official schedule for Monday to personally oversee emergency operations, while the government mobilized military emergency units to the crash site.
Isabel Diaz Ayuso, president of the Madrid region, confirmed deployment of emergency response teams and mental health professionals to Madrid's Atocha station to support distressed families awaiting news of loved ones.
Spain's royal family issued a statement conveying "great concern" and extending sympathies to bereaved families.
Salvador Jimenez, a journalist with Spain's national radio, was traveling aboard the Madrid-bound train when disaster struck. He told a public broadcaster that one carriage on his train had "completely flipped."
"We left Malaga on time ... There was a moment that felt like an earthquake and that's when the train derailed," he recounted, describing the terrifying moments as the rail cars buckled.
Jimenez explained how trapped passengers smashed windows with emergency hammers to flee the mangled wreckage before rescue teams arrived to coordinate evacuations.
The disaster evokes painful memories of Spain's deadliest modern rail catastrophe in 2013, when a high-speed train traveling from Madrid to Galicia derailed at excessive speed, killing 79 people and injuring 179 others in a tragedy that shocked the nation.
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