At least 39 dead and 150 injured in the collision of two high-speed trains in Córdoba

MadridThe derailment of two high-speed trains – an Iryo and an Alvia operated by Renfe – in Adamuz (Córdoba) has so far left 39 dead and 152 injured. The Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, warns that the figure "is not final" and the president of Andalusia, Juanma Moreno, fears More victims will be found when the crane lifts the wrecked train cars, and the force of the crash was such that bodies have been found "hundreds of meters from the impact." In addition, eleven adults and one child are in the ICU, and another 36 people are hospitalized in different hospitals with injuries. 74 people have already been discharged.

For now, The specific causes of the accident are unknown.The derailment occurred Sunday night on a straight, flat section of track. Óscar Puente explained in the early hours of the morning that it was "extremely strange" and predicted it would take at least a month to determine what happened: "We're not talking about an old track; we're talking about new materials in good condition. It's very unusual." Renfe's president, Álvaro Fernández Heredia, in an interview on Cadena SER radio, agreed that "it wasn't a problem of excessive speed," cautioned that the conclusions wouldn't be "immediate"—it would take "several days" to have a "conclusive answer"—and asserted that the error factor was a factor. Iryo explained this morning that the train that derailed, manufactured in 2022, had been inspected just four days prior, on January 15th.

Of particular concern is the Alvia train – which was traveling from Madrid to Huelva. The first two carriages, carrying 53 people, were the most severely damaged after being thrown from the train and falling down a four-meter embankment: they are "completely disintegrated" and accessing them is "very complicated," according to Álvaro Fernández Heredia. It is known that a wheel came off the train and "has not yet been located," that both trains were traveling below the speed limit of 250 km/h, and that the incident occurred in a matter of 20 seconds, which did not allow for the activation of the emergency alarm or braking systems.

At 7:45 p.m., the Iryo train traveling between Málaga and Atocha (Madrid) derailed, crossed onto the continuous track, and caused the Alvia train traveling from Madrid to Huelva to derail. However, Renfe now says that it "cannot yet be concluded" whether the Alvia collided with the Iryo cars or any other element of the track.

Sánchez suspends his agenda and travels to Adamuz

The tragedy has led Pedro Sánchez to suspend his schedule for today and, therefore, postpone the meeting planned for this afternoon with the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, to discuss sending troops to Ukraine. He will also not meet tomorrow with the spokesperson for Sumar in Congress, Verónica Martínez Barbero, nor with the leader of ERC in Madrid, Gabriel Rufián. The Spanish Prime Minister will travel to the accident site this morning to assess the situation firsthand and has canceled his participation in the World Economic Forum in Davos. In Catalonia, the Catalan government and the Comuns party have suspended their planned meeting to monitor the agreements between the two groups. The Catalan government and the Barcelona City Council have called for a minute of silence at noon in Plaça Sant Jaume in memory of the victims.

The despair of the witnesses

Social networks They have been filled with messages of despair. People are unable to contact their families. "I still haven't heard anything. We've called all the numbers and nothing," one user said. "We need information; we have a relative who is incommunicado," another posted. Meanwhile, the municipal sports center in Adamuz has been converted into a makeshift field hospital to treat those with minor injuries, and relatives of the passengers have gone there searching for their family members and asking for information. The Civil Guard has opened an office at the Córdoba Command Headquarters so that immediate family members can provide DNA samples to compare with those of the deceased for identification, and Renfe has set up the phone number 900 10 10 20 to assist the families of those affected by the accident.