At least 39 dead in Spain after two high-speed trains collide

MADRID - At least 39 people died in southern Spain after a high-speed train derailed and collided with an oncoming one on the night of Jan 18, marking the worst railway accident in the country since 2013.

The accident happened at 7.45pm local time (2.45am on Jan 19, Singapore time) near Adamuz in the province of Cordoba, about 360km south of the capital Madrid. It left 122 people injured, with 48 still in hospital and 12 in intensive care, according to emergency services.

The chief of Andalucia’s regional government, Mr Juanma Moreno, had previously told reporters early on Jan 19 that the death toll would likely be more than 20 and warned the number may rise by daylight.

“The forcefulness of the accident has been very strong... we will likely find (more) corpses,” Mr Moreno said, adding that heavy machinery would need to be used to remove pieces of train wreckage and try to locate any new victims.

Drone footage shot by Reuters at the scene showed twisted carriages lying on their side under the glare of floodlights. Some passengers had climbed out of smashed windows, while others were wheeled away on stretchers, according to video footage shared on social media.

El Pais newspaper reported that the 27-year-old driver of the Madrid-to-Huelva train, which was struck, was among the dead.

There were around 400 passengers on the two trains, most of them Spaniards travelling back to and from Madrid after the weekend.

It was unclear how many tourists were on board as January is not holiday season in Spain.

“There are many injured. I am still trembling,” Ms Maria San Jose, 33, a passenger on the Malaga-to-Madrid high-speed train that derailed, told El Pais.

A passenger on the second train, who was not identified, told public broadcaster TVE: “There were people screaming, their bags fell from the shelves. I was travelling to Huelva in the fourth carriage, the last, luckily.”

The second train, operated by state-funded Renfe, was travelling to Huelva at around 200kmh at the moment of impact, reported El Pais.

It was unclear how fast the first train was travelling when it derailed.

The cause for the crash is not yet known, Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente told reporters at a press conference at Atocha station in Madrid, adding it was “really strange” that a derailment should have happened on a straight stretch of track.

This section of track was renewed in May 2025, he added.

He said on X on Jan 19 that he was on his way to Cordoba.

“The death toll has risen to 39 and is not yet definitive. I want to express my enormous gratitude for the work of the rescue teams overnight, in very difficult circumstances, and my condolences to the victims and their families at this terrible time.”

‘Still people trapped’

There were around 400 passengers on the two trains, operated by Iryo and Alvia, according to a statement from state-owned rail operator Renfe. Most of them were Spaniards travelling to and from Madrid after the weekend. It was unclear how many tourists were on board during a low-season period in Spain.

The Iryo train had more than 300 passengers on board, while the Renfe train had around 100.

The Iryo train was en route from Malaga to Madrid. The second train was heading towards Huelva and was travelling at about 200 km per hour at the moment of impact, newspaper El Pais reported.

“The Iryo 6189 Malaga train (to Madrid) has derailed from the track at Adamuz, crashing onto the adjacent track. The (Madrid) to Huelva train which was travelling on the adjacent track has also derailed,” Adif, which runs the rail network, said in a social media post.

Mr Puente said most of those killed and injured had been in the first two carriages of the second train, the Renfe Alvia that derailed on impact and plunged down the railway embankment.

The first carriage had 37 people on board and the second, 16, he said.

The death toll is the highest from a train crash since 2013, when a train derailed in the north-western city of Santiago de Compostela and burst into flames, killing 80 people and injuring 145.

Cordoba fire chief Paco Carmona told TVE that while the Iryo had been evacuated within hours of the accident, the Renfe carriages were badly damaged, with twisted metal and seats.

“There are still people trapped. The operation is concentrating on getting people out of areas which are very narrow,” he said. “We have to remove the bodies to reach anyone who is still alive. It is proving to be a complicated task.”

Horrific scenes

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez cleared his diary for Jan 19 to address the tragedy, while the Spanish King and Queen were following events with concern, a spokesperson said.

Foreign embassies sent text messages to staff asking them to confirm they were safe.

Adamuz mayor Rafael Moreno told El Pais newspaper that he had been among the first to arrive at the scene of the accident alongside the local police and saw what he believed to be a badly lacerated body several metres from the accident site.

“The scene is horrific,” he said. “I don’t think they were on the same track, but it’s not clear. Now the mayors and residents of the area are focused on helping the passengers.”

Local television images showed a reception centre set up for passengers in Adamuz, a town of 5,000 people, with locals bringing food and blankets as nighttime temperatures hovered around 6 deg C.

Tearful passengers disembarking from the bus spoke briefly to local press before being shepherded inside.

Mr Salvador Jimenez, a journalist for RTVE who was on board the train from Cordoba to Madrid, shared images showing the rear carriage of the train lying on its side, with evacuated passengers sitting on the side of the carriage facing upwards.

Mr Jimenez told TVE by phone from beside the stricken trains that passengers had used emergency hammers to smash the windows and climb out, and they had seen two people taken out of the overturned carriages on stretchers.

The train involved was a Freccia 1000 train which was travelling between Malaga and Madrid, a spokesperson for Ferrovie dello Stato said.

The company said in a statement that it deeply regretted what had happened and had activated all emergency protocols to work closely with the relevant authorities.

Renfe said the derailment of its train had been caused by the Iryo train derailing into its path, adding that emergency services were still recovering passengers.

Renfe said its president was travelling to the crash site and that it was working to support passengers and their families.

Adif has suspended all rail services between Madrid and Andalucia.

Trains to Andalusia cancelled

Over 200 trains between Madrid and the southern Andalusia region – including major cities Cordoba, Seville and Granada – were cancelled on Jan 19, according to RTVE.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has cleared his agenda for the day, his office said in a statement on Jan 19.

The cause of the crash is not yet known, Mr Puente told reporters at a press conference at Atocha station in Madrid on Sunday.

Spain’s high-speed railway network, with 3,622 km of tracks, is the largest in Europe and the second-biggest in the world after China, according to state-owned rail infrastructure administrator Adif.

The government was criticised last year for a series of delays on the network, caused by power outages and the theft of copper cables from the lines. The network is vulnerable to cable thefts as it crosses large swathes of empty countryside.

Spain opened up its high-speed rail network to private competition in 2020 in a bid to offer low-cost alternatives to Renfe’s Ave trains.

Iryo is a joint venture between Italian state railway operator Ferrovie dello Stato, airline Air Nostrum and Spanish infrastructure investment fund Globalvia. It began operating in November 2022, starting with the Madrid-Barcelona route and expanding to other major cities. Alvia is operated by Renfe. REUTERS