Spain will begin three days of mourning on Tuesday as rescuers continue to comb through the wreckage of twisted train cars and scattered debris to locate victims after a train collision that killed at least 40 people and injured dozens.<\/p>\n
On Monday, more than 18 hours after a high-speed train carrying about 300 Madrid-bound passengers derailed and collided<\/a> with an oncoming train, people across the country were still scrambling to make contact with missing loved ones caught up in Spain\u2019s worst rail disaster in more than a decade.<\/p>\n Many family members of those onboard were still waiting for news about their loved ones. Photograph: Jon Nazca\/Reuters<\/p>\n Juan Barroso said five members of his extended family had been among the nearly 200 people heading from Madrid to the southern city of Huelva by train. In the aftermath of the collision near Adamuz in C\u00f3rdoba province, just one of them, a six-year-old child, had been accounted for.<\/p>\n \u201cNow we\u2019re searching for the four who are missing,\u201d Barroso told reporters. \u201cWe\u2019ve been all over. All of the hospitals in Ja\u00e9n, \u00dabeda and in C\u00f3rdoba.\u201d<\/p>\n Others used social media to post photos of their loved ones, pleading for people to get in touch. \u201cIf anyone in Adamuz recognises this man, he\u2019s my father, please contact me,\u201d read one message.<\/p>\n Police said they had opened several offices where people could file reports and \u201cprovide DNA samples for the purpose of identification\u201d.<\/p>\n Speaking to reporters during a visit to the site, the country\u2019s prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez, vowed that the investigation into the cause of the crash would be full and transparent.<\/p>\n Spain\u2019s prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez (2-R), promised a thorough investigation. Photograph: Jorge Zapata\/EPA<\/p>\n \u201cSpanish society, like all of us, is wondering what happened, how it happened, how this tragedy could have occurred,\u201d he said on Monday as he declared three days of mourning starting at midnight . \u201cAnd I\u2019m convinced that time and the work of experts will provide us with those answers.\u201d<\/p>\n The collision occurred just before 8pm on Sunday night, when the rear part of the Madrid-bound train came off the rails<\/a> and into the path of an oncoming train.<\/p>\n The impact knocked the first two carriages of the southbound train off the track, sending it plummeting down a 4-metre (13ft) slope, said Spain\u2019s transport minister, \u00d3scar Puente.<\/p>\n Map of where the trains crashed<\/a><\/p>\n While the cause of the accident had yet to be established, Puente described it as \u201creally strange\u201d that a derailment had happened on a straight stretch of track. This particular section had been renovated in May, he added.<\/p>\n The train that derailed was less than four years old and had been inspected four days earlier, Iryo, the private company that operated the train, said in a statement on Monday.<\/p>\n The president of the state rail company, Renfe, \u00c1lvaro Fern\u00e1ndez Heredia, said it was too early to talk about the cause. But he noted that the accident had taken place in \u201cstrange conditions\u201d, telling the broadcaster Cadena Ser that \u201chuman error is practically ruled out\u201d.<\/p>\n A source told Reuters that technicians had identified a broken joint on the rails, which they said had created a gap between the rail sections that widened as trains continued to travel on the track. The faulty joint could prove important in identifying the precise cause of the accident, the source added.<\/p>\n Neither Adif, the state-owned rail infrastructure administrator, nor the Spanish commission tasked with investigating rail accidents replied to requests for comment.<\/p>\n Since 2022, Adif has publicly flagged 10 infrastructure issues in the area where the collision occurred, from signalling failures to issues with overhead power lines. In August, the union representing train drivers said in a letter that increased rail traffic had led to severe wear and tear on the tracks, resulting in frequent breakdowns and train damage.<\/p>\n On Monday the train drivers\u2019 union called for caution in linking their earlier warning to the crash, stressing that the cause of the collision remained unknown.<\/p>\n Some passengers managed to slip out of overturned carriages and twisted masses of steel on their own, using emergency hammers to break through windows. Photograph: Manu Fern\u00e1ndez\/AP<\/p>\n As reports of the collision began circulating on Sunday evening, emergency officials rushed to the remote area where it took place.<\/p>\n Grappling with darkness and largely limited by the single-track road that leads to and from the site, they worked through the night to pull people out of the wreckage. Some passengers managed to slip out of overturned carriages and twisted masses of steel on their own, using emergency hammers to break through windows.<\/p>\n