The Japan Times - Spain promises answers as high-speed train crash kills 39

The crash late on Sunday is Spain's deadliest train accident since 2013, when 80 people died after a train veered off a curved section of track outside the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela.

The latest happened when a train operated by rail company Iryo travelling from Malaga to Madrid derailed near Adamuz in Andalucia.

It crossed onto the other track, where it crashed into an oncoming train, which also derailed.

"This is a day of sorrow for all of Spain, for our entire country," Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told reporters during a visit to Adamuz as he declared three days of mourning.

"We will uncover the answer, and once the cause of this tragedy is determined, we will present it with absolute transparency."

The interior ministry said 39 people died.

Over 120 people were injured, with 43 still in hospital, regional emergency services said. Of those, 12 were in intensive care.

Heavy machinery was being deployed to lift the most severely damaged train carriages, the head of the regional government of Andalucia, Juan Manuel Moreno, told reporters.

"Unfortunately, it is quite possible that additional victims will be found beneath the twisted wreckage. The goal is to identify the victims as quickly as possible," he added.

- 'Extremely strange' -

Unlike the 2013 accident, the derailment occurred on a straight section of track, and the trains were travelling within the speed limit, officials said.

Transport Minister Oscar Puente said the first train to derail was "practically new" and the section of the track where the disaster happened had been recently renovated, making the accident "extremely strange".

Train operator Iryo said the locomotive was built in 2022 and last inspected just three days before the accident. It said it "veered onto the adjacent track for still unknown reasons".

The company said around 300 people were on board its service from the Andalusian city of Malaga to the capital, Madrid.

Renfe, the operator of the second train travelling to the southern city of Huelva, said it was carrying 184 passengers.

Human error has "been practically ruled out", Renfe president Alvaro Fernandez Heredia told Spanish public radio RNE.

"It must be related to Iryo's rolling stock or an infrastructure issue," he added.

- 'Catastrophe' -

The stretch of track where the accident happened had a speed limit of 250 kilometres per hour (155 miles per hour), Heredia said.

One train was travelling at 205 kilometres per hour, and the other 210 kilometres per hour, he added.

Spain has Europe's largest high-speed rail network, with more than 3,000 kilometres of dedicated tracks connecting major cities including Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Valencia and Malaga.

Survivor Lucas Meriako, who was travelling on the first train that derailed, told La Sexta television that it looked "like a horror movie".

"We felt a very strong hit from behind and the feeling that the whole train was about to collapse, break... there were many injured due to the glass," he said.

Residents of Adamuz, which is filled with white buildings and streets lined with orange trees, were grappling with the aftermath of the disaster.

"This is a catastrophe for us," Jose Perez Rojas, an 80-year-old pensioner, told AFP, calling it "really shocking".

Manuel Munoz, 60, an olive oil factory worker, said locals rushed to the centre of the town as word of the accident spread.

French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen were among world leaders offering condolences.

M.Sugiyama--JT