- This story is developing, more to follow
At least five people have died after two high-speed trains derailed in Spain.
The accident happened Adamuz near Cordoba at 7:39pm local time. An unknown number of passengers have been injured, the Civil Guard said.
The trains – one travelling from Málaga to Madrid, the other bound for Huelva and running on an adjacent line – both overturned as they travelled at high speed.
‘In the derailment and collision in Adamuz, Cordoba, there are injured people,’ the Andalusia region’s emergency services posted on X.
The full scale of the incident is not currently known, and authorities have not confirmed the number of people who have died., though ABC reported at least 20 people were injured.
Local media also reported that 317 people were on the Madrid-bound train.
It is not currently known how many people remain trapped, but horrifying footage showed rescue teams desperately working in pitch-black conditions to free those who remain in the trains.
Journalist Salvador Jiménez of Radio Nacional de España (RNE), who was on the train at the time, said the derailment felt ‘like an earthquake’.
He said the train’s crew immediately called out for medical personnel onboard to help the injured.
Horrifying footage showed rescue teams desperately working in pitch-black conditions to free those trapped in the trains
The full scale of the incident is not currently known, and authorities have not confirmed the number of people who have died
The accident happened Adamuz near Cordoba at 7:39pm local time
Local media reported that a large emergency response has been mobilised, made up of five mobile intensive care units, a logistics support vehicle and four emergency critical care units, to treat the injured.
Firefighters from seven stations in the area have also been dispatched.
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez said in a post to X: ‘Very concerned about the accident between two high-speed trains that have derailed in Adamuz (Córdoba).
‘The Government is working with the rest of the competent authorities and emergency services to assist the passengers.’
The high-speed rail service between between Madrid and Andalusia has been suspended following the incident.
The crash came just months after three British nationals, Kayleigh Smith, 36, William Nelson, 44, and David Young, 82, were among 16 people who died in the Gloria funicular tram disaster in Lisbon when the streetcar derailed and crashed in the Portuguese capital.
In 2013, 79 people died after a high-speed train veered off the track on a sharp bend near the Spanish northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela, slammed into a concrete wall and burst into flames.
Another 143 people were injured in Spain’s worst train crash in decades.
More to follow.
