Death toll hits 39 in Spain high-speed rail disaster as more bodies recovered
Rescuers work through the night after a derailing train crossed tracks and slammed into an oncoming service at high speed
Spanish police said on Monday that at least 39 people are confirmed dead in a high-speed train collision the previous night in the south of the country.
Efforts to recover the bodies are continuing and the death toll is likely to rise. Some bodies were found hundreds of meters from the crash site, Andalusia regional president Juanma Moreno said.
The crash occurred Sunday at 7.45pm when the tail end of a train carrying 289 passengers on the route from Malaga to the capital, Madrid, went off the rails It slammed into an incoming train travelling from Madrid to Huelva, another southern Spanish city, according to rail operator Adif.
The head of the second train, which was carrying nearly 200 passengers, took the brunt of the impact, Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente said. That collision knocked its first two carriages off the track and sent them plummeting down a 4-metre (13-foot) slope. Puente said that it appeared the largest number of the deaths occurred in those carriages.
Authorities said all the survivors had been rescued in the early morning while work remained to recover and identify the dead.
Moreno said on Monday morning that emergency services were still searching.