Spain train accident latest: Experts ‘baffled’ by cause of high-speed train collision with at least 39 dead

Watch: Footage from inside Spain’s high-speed train crash shows passengers trying to escape mangled carriages

Video from inside a derailed high-speed train captures passengers waiting to escape after a fatal crash that has claimed at least 39 lives.

The train travelling from Malaga to Madrid derailed and crashed onto the neighbouring track, colliding with an oncoming train in Adamuz, Spain on Sunday (18 January).

Eyewitness footage taken from inside one of the trains shows standing passengers waiting to be evacuated from the mangled wreckage.

There were around 300 passengers on board the two trains and dozens were injured in the incident, in Spain’s worst train crash in over a decade.

‘The mobile phones of the dead would not stop ringing’: Firefighters describe ‘total chaos’

Firefighters who reached the scene of the rail crash last night told of the scene of “chaos”.

“When we arrived, there were bodies scattered about. People screaming and total chaos. The mobile phones of the dead would not stop ringing,” said one firefighter, who was visibly shaken by the scene which greeted him.

(Guardia Civil/AFP via Getty Imag)

Graham Keeley (in Madrid)19 January 2026 11:00

Spanish civil guard sets up offices for families with missing loved ones

Spain’s Civil Guard has set up three offices across the region to help victims’ families help identify them.

At least 39 people have been confirmed dead with dozens more injured, some critically.

Relatives have been told to file reports and provide DNA samples at offices in Huelva, Malaga and Madrid in order to help with the identification process.

Maira Butt19 January 2026 10:45

How the high-speed train crash in southern Spain unfolded: ‘Felt like an earthquake’

The tail end of a train run by private high-speed rail operator Iryo, travelling from Málaga to Madrid, got derailed and jumped onto an adjacent track, where it smashed into an oncoming Renfe service travelling from Madrid to Huelva, a municipality in Spain, authorities said. Renfe is Spain’s national state-owned railway company.

Maira Butt19 January 2026 10:30

British foreign secretary Yvette Cooper comments on ‘devastating’ crash

UK foreign secretary Yvette Cooper has released a statement following the Spanish train crash.

“Devastating to see the scenes near Córdoba this morning,” she wrote in a post on X/Twitter on Monday.

“Thinking of all those affected by this terrible crash, and the people of Spain at this distressing time. Thank you to the Spanish emergency services who have been responding through the night.”

(PA Wire)

Maira Butt19 January 2026 10:12

Spain train crash: How safe is high-speed rail travel?

Spain has the finest high-speed rail network in Europe. But on Sunday evening, 18 January, dozens of passengers were killed when an Iryo train from Malaga to Madrid derailed and collided with a Renfe Madrid to Huelva express at Adamuz in the southern province of Andalusia.

The tragedy will raise concerns among prospective travellers about the safety of high-speed trains. These are the key questions and answers.

Simon Calder19 January 2026 10:00

Injured woman in hospital says she is ‘covered in cuts and bruises’

Rocio, who is in hospital in Cordoba, was travelling back to Huelva after taking civil service examinations in Madrid at the weekend.

“It was total chaos. I am under observation because of the blows to my head and the vomiting. My ribs are not broken, just dislodged,” she said in a WhatsApp message sent to El Pais newspaper.

“I am covered in bruises and cuts. It was terrible. We were thrown through the air. Thank God I am okay but there are people who are far worse off than me.”

Graham Keeley (in Madrid)19 January 2026 09:54

Train operator president says ‘too early’ to know cause of crash

The president of Renfe, the state-run rail company, discounted human error as the cause of the crash. Alvaro Fernandez Heredia said: “The (trains) were already on the braking curve, one at 205 km per hour, and the other at 210kmh. It is a 250 kilometer per hour section.

“The system itself prevents exceeding that speed. The cause must be something else.”

He said it was “too early” to know the cause and said it was important not to speculate on the matter.

Graham Keeley (in Madrid)19 January 2026 09:43

‘Shouting’ and ‘terror’ during crash, say eyewitnesses

Salvador Jimenez, a journalist with state television channel TVE, said: “I was travelling in carriage one of the Iryo train. Suddenly there was a crash. Then there was ten seconds of shouting, terror.

“We heard a message over the megaphone and a medic came through the carriage towards carriage five. They smashed the window with an axe. We saw the other train which had been hit. It was on its side. I thought ‘My God’ what has happened here.”

Maira Butt19 January 2026 09:32

Missing woman’s husband says ‘she almost missed the train’

Relatives were desperately searching for their loved ones in a makeshift field hospital set up in Adamuz, the small town near Cordoba which was the scene of the crash.

Ramon Monton had only spoken to his wife Tamara Margarita Valdes, who is Cuban, shortly before both trains collided on Sunday night.

“I still have not been able to find her. I am very nervous,” he told El Pais newspaper. Valdes was one of 184 passengers travelling from Madrid to the southern city of Huelva when the crash happened.

“The irony is she almost missed the train,” Monton added.

The crash was the worst train accident since 2013, when a train derailed in the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela and burst into flames, killing 80 people and injuring another 145.

Graham Keeley (in Madrid)19 January 2026 09:25