Spain train crash recovery continues

ADAMUZ– Spanish rescuers used cranes and heavy machinery on Tuesday to gain access to the worst-hit carriages in one of Europe’s deadliest train crashes as they sought to recover the remains of people still missing in a disaster that left at least 41 dead.

Spaniards are reeling following the first-ever deadly accident on the country’s extensive high-speed rail network, which occurred on Sunday evening near Adamuz in Cordoba province, about 360 km (223 miles) south of Madrid. Experts say a faulty rail joint might be key to determining the cause of the derailment that led to the collision between two trains.

Emergency services used heavy machinery overnight and in the early hours of Tuesday to level the ground around the front carriages of the train belonging to the state-run Alvia service, which had plunged down a 4-metre (13.1 ft) embankment after the crash, and the rear carriages of the train operated by private consortium Iryo, the Andalusian regional government said in a statement.

Two cranes were added to the rescue operation, the government said.

The collision occurred in rolling, olive-growing countryside in the foothills of a mountain range in a site only reachable by a single-track road that made it difficult for rescuers to access it with heavy machinery.

Another body was found overnight within the wreck of the Iryo train, which had derailed and caused the crash, raising the death toll to 41, authorities said on Tuesday.

At least three bodies are still trapped in the wreckage, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told a press conference on Tuesday.

He said police had received 43 missing-person reports, which broadly matched the provisional death toll, but cautioned that the final number would not be confirmed until rescue teams had lifted the worst-affected carriages to see what was underneath.

Some relatives continued to wait for news of their loved ones as authorities worked on identifying the dead.

Osiris Sevilla described her anxiety as she waited for news about her husband outside an emergency centre in Cordoba.

“Every second that goes by lasts a lifetime,” she said, adding that she hadn’t given up hope that he’d survived.

“He didn’t like trains… Since we got together, this is the first time he took a train,” she said.

Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia visited the site of the tragedy on Tuesday and spoke to residents, including 16-year-old Julio Rodriguez, who with his mother and a friend was one of the first to reach the scene of the accident. (Reuters)

The post Spain train crash recovery continues appeared first on nationnews.com.