Spain train crash kills dozens, injures more than 100

  • 9 years ago
Originally published on July 24, 2013

At least 77 people were killed and more than 100 were injured when a train derailed on just outside the northern city of Santiago de Compostela in Spain on Wednesday.

According to Reuters, "Bodies covered in blankets lay next to the overturned carriages as smoke billowed from the wreckage. Firemen clambered over the twisted metal trying to get survivors out of the windows.

"The government said it was working on the hypothesis the derailment was an accident - though the scene will stir memories of 2004's Madrid train bombing, carried out by Islamists, that killed 191 people.

"The train operated by state rail company Renfe with 247 people on board derailed on the eve of the ancient city's main festival when thousands of Christian pilgrims travel in to pack the streets.

"'It was going so quickly ... It seems that on a curve the train started to twist, and the wagons piled up one on top of the other,' passenger Ricardo Montesco told Cadena Ser radio station.

"'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 realized the train was burning ... I was in the second wagon and there was fire ... I saw corpses,' he added.

"One witness near the scene told the radio station she heard an explosion before seeing the derailed train.

"Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who was born in Santiago de Compostela, held an emergency meeting with his ministers. He would visit the site on Thursday morning, his spokeswoman added."

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