Hundreds of personnel had been deployed to the crash site to support rescue efforts. Drones and helicopters were also being used to locate victims and help clear the wreckage
By Njoku Vincent
Spain has declared three days of national mourning after at least 68 people were killed and dozens injured in a train collision described as one of the deadliest rail disasters in recent European history.
Emergency services worked through the night under powerful floodlights on Wednesday, cutting through twisted metal carriages and clearing debris in a desperate search for victims. Authorities said many of those killed were yet to be identified.
The crash occurred on Wednesday morning when a train travelling from Madrid to Seville collided with a stationary train, prompting a major rescue and recovery operation.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed condolences to the victims and their families, saying the entire country was grieving over the tragedy.
“The whole of Spain is grieving,” Sánchez said, adding that lives had been shattered, families torn apart and the pain was immense.
Spain’s Interior Ministry said hundreds of personnel had been deployed to the crash site to support rescue efforts. Drones and helicopters were also being used to locate victims and help clear the wreckage.
Preliminary accounts indicate that the stationary train, operated by private rail company Iryo, was carrying 147 passengers when it stopped on the tracks following a computer failure, according to Transport Minister Óscar Puente.
Puente said a 24-hour control centre in Madrid was responsible for taking over operations when such system failures occurred. However, he described as “inexplicable” the decision to instruct the trains to move again without imposing speed restrictions.
Audio recordings of communications between train controllers in Madrid and the drivers reportedly appear to indicate that a high-speed train was cleared to proceed despite another train having stalled ahead.
Iryo said its train was struck from behind by another service operated by state-owned railway company Renfe, which was carrying 397 passengers at the time of the collision.
The impact sent several carriages down an embankment, complicating rescue efforts and raising concerns about the scale of the destruction.
Authorities are investigating the circumstances surrounding the crash, including the reported computer failure, the decisions made by railway controllers and the sequence of events that led to the collision.
As rescue workers continue recovery operations and families await information about missing relatives, the three-day mourning period is expected to provide an opportunity for the country to honour the victims of the disaster.