A high-speed train has crashed into the rear of another train that had stopped in central Spain, derailing two carriages and killing at least 64 people, the regional government says.
Emiliano Garcia-Page, president of the Castilla-La Mancha region, where the crash happened, said about 80 people were injured, about 50 of them seriously and 15 critically, warning that some of the most seriously injured might not survive. Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said the injured were being taken to several hospitals in the area.
The crash occurred early on Wednesday near Urda in Toledo province, south of Madrid, on a high-speed railway line connecting the capital with the southern city of Seville.
Esther Padilla, a spokeswoman for the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha, told Spanish public broadcaster TVE that the trains had been travelling in the same direction when one struck the rear of the other, which was stationary, causing two carriages to derail.
The collision involved an AVE high-speed train operated by Spain’s state railway company Renfe, travelling from Madrid to Seville, and another operated by the private rail company Iryo.
The cause of the collision was not immediately clear.
Footage circulating on social media showed the wreckage from one of the carriages scattered along a slope after it derailed with members of the public and rescue crews gathered around it.
Padilla said 397 passengers were on the Renfe train and 147 on the Iryo train.
Two carriages of the Iryo train fell down an embankment, according to emergency service sources quoted by the newspaper El Pais.
Culled from Al Jazeera News online
