Spanish PM vows to find cause of fatal high-speed train crash

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez promised to get to the bottom of what happened after two high-speed trains collided in southern Spain, killing at least 40 people, as rescuers continued to search for the wreckage.

After visiting the crash site, Sanchez also announced three days of national mourning for the victims.

More than 120 people were injured after a Madrid-bound train carriage derailed and crossed the opposite track, colliding with an oncoming train in Adamus on Sunday night.

The accident was the country’s worst in more than a decade.

Network operator Adif said the accident occurred at 19:45 local time on Sunday (18:45 GMT), about an hour after one of the trains leaving Malaga heading north to Madrid derailed on a straight track near the city of Cordoba.

Transportation Secretary Óscar Puente said the force of the accident pushed the second train’s cars into the embankment. He added that most of the dead and injured were in the front carriage of the second train, which was traveling south from Madrid to Huelva.

The rescue team said the twisted wreckage of the train made it difficult to rescue people trapped in the carriages.

Sanchez visited the crash site Monday afternoon with senior officials.

“This is a sad day for Spain, for our country,” he told reporters.

“We will know the truth, we will find the answers, when the answers are known about the origins and causes of this tragedy, because otherwise we would not be able to bring it to light with absolute transparency and absolute clarity.”

Puente said the investigation could take at least a month, calling the incident “extremely bizarre.”

But Reuters, citing an anonymous source familiar with the preliminary investigation, said experts found a defective joint in the tracks that caused the gap between the rails to widen as trains traveled on the tracks. They added that the joint was key to determining the cause of the accident.

Spain’s El Pais said it was unclear whether the failure was the cause or result of the accident.

The railways said there were 400 passengers and staff on board the two trains. Emergency services treated 122 people, of whom 41, including children, remain in hospital. Of those, 12 are in intensive care.

Puente said the death toll “has not been finalized yet.” Officials are working to identify the deceased.

A spokesman for Italian railway company Ferrovie dello Stato told Reuters the type of train involved in the accident was a Freccia 1000, which can reach a top speed of 400 km/h (250 mph).

RTVE reporter Salvador Jimenez, who was on one of the trains, said the impact felt like an “earthquake.”

“I was sitting in the first car. For a moment, it felt like there was an earthquake and the train actually derailed,” Jimenez said.

Footage from the scene appears to show some train cars rolling onto their sides. Rescue workers could be seen climbing onto the train and pulling people out of the sloping train doors and windows.

“There were people screaming for doctors,” Jose, a passenger traveling to Madrid, told public broadcaster Canal Sur.

All high-speed services between Madrid and the southern cities of Malaga, Cordoba, Seville and Huelva have been suspended until Friday.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia said they were following news of the disaster with “great concern” and offered their “heartiest condolences.”

Emergency agencies in the Andalucia region urged any survivors of the crash to contact their family or post on social media that they were still alive.

The Spanish Red Cross has deployed emergency support services to the scene, while also providing counseling to nearby families.

Miguel Ángel Rodríguez of the Red Cross told RNE radio station: “These families are experiencing great anxiety due to the lack of information. It is a very painful moment.”

In 2013, Galicia in northwest Spain suffered the most serious high-speed rail derailment, killing 80 people and injuring 140 others.

Spain’s high-speed rail network ranks second in the world after China, connecting more than 50 cities across the country. Adif data shows Spanish railways are more than 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles) long.