Spanish investigators
tried to determine Thursday why a passenger train jumped the tracks and sent
eight cars crashing into each other just before arriving in this northwestern
shrine city on the eve of a major Christian religious festival.
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, SPAIN—Relatives of victims from a train
crash in northwestern Spain sobbed and hugged each other Friday near a
makeshift morgue in a sports arena for the victims as the death toll rose to 78
and investigators tried to determine the cause.
The train jumped the tracks and at least one passenger told a
radio station that it appeared to be going very fast as it went into a
pronounced curve while approaching the station in this Catholic shrine city on
the eve of a major religious festival.
Seventy-three people were found dead at the scene of the accident
and four died in hospitals, said Maria Pardo Rios, spokeswoman for the Galicia
region's main court. Another person also died, bringing the toll to 78, but no
information was immediately available on where, said an Interior Ministry
official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of ministry policy.
At least 141 people were injured — some critically — after the
eight-carriage train carrying 218 passengers derailed about an hour before sunset
Wednesday night.
Authorities did not identify any possible accident causes, but a
spokeswoman with Spain's Interior Ministry said Thursday that the possibility
that the derailment was caused by a terrorist attack had been ruled out. She
also spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ministry policy.
It was Spain's deadliest train accident since 1972, when a train
collided with a bus in southwestern Spain, killing 86 people and injuring 112.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who was born in Santiago de Compostela, toured
the crash scene Thursday with rescue workers and then went to a hospital to
visit injured passengers.
A grim Rajoy told reporters that “for a native of Santiago, like
me, this is the saddest day.” He said investigations had been launched by
judicial authorities and the Public Works Ministry to determine the cause as
quickly as possible but declined to take questions from reporters.
Officials in the city cancelled ceremonies for its annual
religious festival that attracts tens of thousands of Christians from around
the world.
“July 24 will no longer be the eve of a day of celebration but
rather one commemorating one of the saddest days in the history of Galicia,”
said Alberto Nunez Feijoo, president of the region of Galicia where Santiago de
Compostela is the capital.
Rescue workers spent the night searching through smashed cars
alongside the tracks, and Pardo said it was possible that the death toll could
go higher. Many of the dead were taken to a makeshift morgue set up in the
city's largest indoor sports arena, where police and court officials were
identifying the bodies. Relatives of victims sobbed and hugged each other
outside at a nearby information point for families seeking news about their
missing loved ones.
A regional Galicia health official, Rocio Mosquera, told reporters
at a press conference early Thursday that 141 passengers from the train had
been treated at area hospitals, with their conditions ranging from light
injuries to serious. Some were still in surgery hours after the crash, while
others had been treated and released.
As dawn arrived, cranes brought to the scene were used to lift the
cars off the tracks and rescue workers were seen collecting passenger luggage
and putting it into a truck next to the tracks.
The site itself was a scene of horror immediately after the crash.
Smoke billowed from at least one car which caught fire; another broke into two
parts. Residents of the urban neighbourhood alongside the tracks struggled to
help victims out of the toppled cars.
Rescue workers lined up bodies covered in blankets alongside the
tracks and some passengers were pulled out of broken windows. Television images
showed one man atop a carriage lying on its side, using a pickaxe to try to
smash through a window. Residents said other rescuers used rocks.
State-owned train operator Renfe said in a statement an
unspecified number of staff were also on board the train during the 8.41 p.m.
crash on a section of tracks about 4 kilometres from Santiago de Compostela
that came online two years ago. Spanish media said the train had two conductors
aboard and that both survived.
Renfe and Adif, the state-owned company which manages tracks,
signals and other railway infrastructure, were co-operating with a judge who
has been appointed to investigate the accident, Renfe said.
It was the third major rail disaster this month. On July 12, six
people were killed and nearly 200 were injured when four cars of a passenger
train derailed south of Paris.
On July 6, 72 cars carrying crude oil derailed in Lac-Megantic, Quebec,
setting off explosions and fires which killed 47 people.
Catholic pilgrims converge on the Santiago de Compostela annually
to celebrate a festival honouring St. James, the disciple of Jesus whose
remains are said to rest in a shrine. The city is the main gathering point for
the faithful who make it to the end of the El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage
route that has drawn Christians since the Middle Ages.
The accident created a scene that was “Dante-esque,” Feijoo said.
He declared seven days of mourning to honour the victims.
Several injured passengers said they felt a strong vibration just
before the cars jumped the tracks, said Xabier Martinez, a photographer who
talked with them after arriving at the scene as rescue workers were removing
dozens of bodies.
Passenger Ricardo Montero told the Cadena Ser radio station that
“when the train reached that bend it began to flip over, many times, with some
carriages ending up on top of others, leaving many people trapped below. We had
to get under the carriages to get out.”
Another passenger, Sergio Prego, told Cadena Ser the train
“travelled very fast” just before it derailed and the cars flipped upside down,
on their sides and into the air.
“I've been very lucky because I'm one of the few able to walk
out,” he said.
The Alvia 730 series train started from Madrid and was scheduled
to end its journey at El Ferrol, about 95 kilometres north of Santiago de
Compostela. Alvias are high-speed but do not go as fast as Spain's fastest
bullet trains called AVEs.
The maximum Alvia speed is 250 km/h on tracks made especially for
the AVEs, and they travel at a maximum speed of 220 km/h on normal gauge rails.
Other major train crashes in Spain over the decades include a 1944
accident on a train travelling from Madrid to the Galicia region that killed 78
people. A subway crash in the southern city of Valencia killed 43 people in
2006 and was blamed on excessive speed. The Madrid train bombings carried out
in 2004 killed 191 people.
___
Clendenning reported from Madrid. Ciaran Giles contributed from
Madrid.
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