Death toll climbs to 39 in high-speed train collision in Spain

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. local time when the tail end of a train carrying some 300 passengers on the route from Malaga to the capital, Madrid, went off the rails. It slammed into an incoming train travelling 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 four-metre 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.”

‘Felt like an earthquake’

Video and photos showed twisted train cars lying on their sides under floodlights. 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 kilometres south of Madrid.

Puente, the transport minister, said early Monday said the cause of the crash was unknown.

Sports centre serves as makeshift hospital

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.

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

Spain has the largest rail network in Europe for trains moving over 250 kilometres per hour, with more than 3,100 kilometres of track, according to the European Union.

The network is a popular, competitively priced and safe mode of transport. Renfe said more than 25 million passengers took one of its high-speed trains in 2024.

Train services Monday between Madrid and cities in Andalusia were cancelled.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a post on X that she was following “the terrible news” from Cordoba.

“Tonight you are in my thoughts,” she wrote in Spanish.

Adif said train services between Madrid and cities in Andalusia would not run Monday.