At least 21 people have died, dozens of people are seriously injured and an unspecified number may still be trapped after the derailment of two high-speed trains in the municipality of Adamuz (Córdoba), sources close to the investigation informed EFE.
An Iryo company train derailed and collided with another train that was circulating on the adjacent track, a Renfe Alvia, whose driver is one of those killed in the accident, Renfe sources confirmed to EFE.
The Iryo, which had left Malaga at 6:40 p.m. bound for Puerta de Atocha with 317 people, derailed its last three cars at 7:39 p.m. and invaded the opposite track, on which at that same moment another Renfe convoy was circulating bound for Huelva, which also derailed.
The Spanish Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, explained that the last carriages of the Iryo train that derailed in Adamuz invaded the opposite track on which a high-speed Renfe train was circulating at that time and, after a “terrible” impact, two carriages of this last train were ejected, causing a number of victims that “cannot be confirmed” yet.
Puente is following all the information about the train accident at the H24 Network Management Center of the state railway Adif, in Madrid, and from there he explained in his X account that the latest information coming from Córdoba is “very serious.”
The impact “was terrible”, and caused “the first two units of the Renfe train to be thrown away as a result of it.” “The number of victims cannot be confirmed at this time. The fundamental thing now is to help the victims,” the minister stressed.
The journalist from Radio Nacional de España (RNE) Salvador Jiménez, who was traveling in the first car of the Iryo train at the time of the accident, said that an hour after leaving Malaga it was felt like “an earthquake” in all the cars and that “immediately” over the public address system the crew asked if there were medical personnel to help the injured in the last two cars, one of them overturned on its side on the tracks and with broken windows.
The travelers left for the Adamuz stop, while the crew took hammers to break the windows and help people get out of the derailed cars.
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Chaos at stations and suspension of service
The derailment has caused chaos in several stations and the service has been suspended for this Monday between Madrid and several cities in the Andalusia region.
The circulation of high-speed trains between Madrid and the cities of Córdoba, Seville, Málaga and Huelva will be suspended for “at least throughout Monday, January 19,” as reported in X, the state company Adif, responsible for railway infrastructure.
The stations of Atocha (Madrid), Seville, Córdoba and Málaga will remain open all night to accommodate the hundreds of passengers who have not been able to catch their trains today.
At 11:00 p.m. this Sunday, the car rental offices open at Atocha station have long queues at their counters, while the Renfe customer service offices also try to respond to travelers’ demands.
The president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, decided to cancel his Monday agenda to attend to this accident and assured that the Executive is working with other competent authorities and with the emergency services to help the passengers of the two trains.
With information from EFE.
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