Dozens die as Spanish train derails in Galicia
A train has
derailed in north-western Spain, killing at least 77 of its 218 passengers and
injuring more than 100, officials in the Galicia region say.
BBC
All eight
carriages of the Madrid to Ferrol train came off the tracks near the city of
Santiago de Compostela.
Media reports
say the train may have been travelling at more than twice the speed limit
around a curve.
Officials have
not commented on the cause. Analysts say it is the worst train accident in
Spain in 40 years.
Spain generally
has a relatively good record in terms of rail safety, says the BBC's Tom
Burridge.
This is a
country which has invested huge amounts of money in its rail network, he says.
Spain's last
major rail disaster was in 1972 when 77 people were killed in a derailment in
Andalusia in the south.
Railway firm
Renfe said the train came off the tracks on a bend about 3 or 4km (2-2.5 miles)
from Santiago de Compostela station at 20:41 local time (18:41 GMT).
It was on the
express route between Madrid and the ship-building city of Ferrol on the
Galician coast.
Renfe says it
and the track operating company Adif are collaborating with a judge appointed
to investigate the accident.
Government
officials said they believed the crash was an accident, but that no statement
would be made regarding the cause without a proper investigation.
"We are
moving away from the hypothesis of sabotage or attack," one unnamed
official said.
Rescue workers
have continued to search for survivors in the wreckage.
They have so far
recovered 73 bodies from the accident site, while four more people died in
hospital, a spokeswoman for Galicia's supreme court said on Thursday. Judges
are responsible for registering deaths in Spain.
It is not known
how many Renfe employees were on board the train.
Images from the
site showed bodies covered with blankets next to the tracks, as emergency crews
searched the wreckage.
More than 140
passengers were receiving treatment for a range of light to more serious
injuries, a health official told reporters on Thursday morning.
Residents
flocked to hospitals in the area to donate blood in response to an appeal.
Meanwhile, 320
Spanish police officers were deployed to help out the rescue operation.
The leader of
the regional government Alberto Nunez Feijoo described it as "a
Dante-esque scene", in comments to Radio Cadena Ser.
One witness,
Ricardo Montesco, described how the train carriages "piled on top of one
another" after the train hit a curve.
"A lot of
people were squashed on the bottom. We tried to squeeze out of the bottom of
the wagons to get out and we realised the train was burning...I was in the
second wagon and there was fire. I saw corpses," he told Spanish Cadena
Ser radio station.
Several
eyewitnesses described the train travelling very fast before it derailed.
The derailment
happened on the eve of Santiago de Compostela's main annual festival where
thousands of Christian pilgrims were expected to flock to the city in honour of
Saint James.
The city's
tourism board said all festivities planned for Thursday have been cancelled.
Local journalist
Francisco Camino said the region was in shock.
"This is a
tiny place and nothing happens here, nothing important or tragic," he told
the BBC.
"We were
preparing for the celebrations and now this could turn out to be the worst
train crash in many years.
Prime Minister
Mariano Rajoy, who was born in Santiago de Compostela, convened an emergency
ministerial meeting late on Wednesday. He is due to visit the scene of the
accident on Thursday.
Spanish train
crashes
- August 2006: Inter-city train derails in Villada, in the province of Palencia, killing six people and injuring dozens more.
- July 2006: At least 43 people killed in a metro train crash in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia.
- June 2003: At least 19 people killed and some 40 injured in a head-on train collision near Chinchilla in Albacete province.
- March 2002: Two express trains collide outside Tarragona, in Catalonia, killing four people and injuring more than 80.