http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/07/2013724202911344554.html

Dozens killed in Spanish train crash

At least 45 dead and 70 injured after mass carriage derailment outside city of Santiago de Compostela.

Last Modified: 24 Jul 2013 22:52

Up to 45 people were killed in the derailment [Reuters]

At least 45 people were killed and 70 injured when a train derailed on the outskirts of the northern Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela in one of Europe's worst rail disasters.

Bodies covered in blankets lay next to the overturned carriages as smoke billowed from the wreckage after the Wednesday crash. Firemen clambered over the twisted metal trying to get survivors out of the windows.

The head of Spain's Galicia region, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, told Cope radio station 45 people were killed and 70 were injured, 20 of them seriously. The train was carrying 247 people. "The scene is shocking, it's Dante-esque," Feijoo said.

Al Jazeera's Johan Hull reports from Madrid

The train was travelling from Madrid to Ferrol on the
Galician coast when it derailed, Renfe said.

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 that killed 191 people.

"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 realised the train was burning ... I was in the second wagon and there was fire ... I saw corpses."

Another witness told the station they had heard an explosion before seeing the derailed train.
Santiago de Compostela is the birthplace of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and is best known as the destination of an ancient Catholic pilgrimage route.
A spokesman for Rojay said he had convened an emergency meeting with ministers, and would travel to the crash site on Thursday.
Rajoy said in a Twitter message that he wanted to express his "affection and solidarity with the victims of the terrible train accident in Santiago."
The crash happened a day before the city's main festival focused on St James, one of Jesus's 12 disciples whose remains are said to rest in the city. Tens of thousands of pilgrims attend the festival.
The apostle's shrine there is the destination of the El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, followed by Christians since the Middle Ages.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-24/high-speed-train-derails-north-west-spain-35-killed-hundreds-injured

High-Speed Train Derails In North-West Spain - 35 Killed, Hundreds Injured

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/24/2013 17:32 -0400

When we recently described the case of the "monoderailed" Spanish "train to nowhere" we hardly had in mind just how sad and tragic this proposition would become in reality just two short weeks later. A high-speed train (traveling at 250kph) has derailed in Northwestern Spain - killing at least 35 people and injured hundreds more. As CNN reports, the train crashed on a curve near the city of Santiago de Compostela - traveling from Madrid to the town of Ferrol. With China unveiling its plans to save the world's economy via a rail-road infrastructure fund, and Spain already neck-deep in funding rail-roads to nowhere, this evening's terrible disaster in Spain will surely provide some food for thought.

Via The Guardian,

Eyewitnesses said that the derailed train, which was reportedly carrying 240 passengers when the accident happened, had caught fire after the crash.

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

Another witness told the station they had heard an explosion before seeing the derailed train.

Various images of the crash site: