The driver of a
Spanish train that derailed, killing at least 80 people, was under
police guard in hospital on Thursday after the dramatic accident which
an official source said was caused by excessive speed.
SANTIAGO
DE COMPOSTELA, Spain (Reuters) - A train derailed outside the ancient
northwestern Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela on Wednesday night,
on the eve of a major religious festival, killing at least 78 people and
injuring up to 131 in one of Europe's worst rail disasters.
In what one local official described as a scene from hell, bodies
covered in blankets lay next to the overturned carriages as smoke
billowed from the wreckage after the disaster.
Firefighters clambered desperately over the twisted metal trying to
get survivors out of the windows, while ambulances and fire engines
surrounded the scene. Cranes were still pulling out mangled debris on
Thursday morning, 12 hours after the crash.
The government said it was working on the assumption the derailment was an accident.
One official source said speeding was a likely cause of the
derailment, which occurred as the train reached a curve in the track,
but the public works minister said it was too early to draw conclusions
on what had happened.
El Pais newspaper cited sources close to the investigation as saying
the train was travelling at over twice the speed limit on a sharp curve
and Santiago's mayor said the train was probably going too fast.
"We heard a massive noise and we went down the tracks. I helped
getting a few injured and bodies out of the train. I went into one of
the cars but I'd rather not tell you what I saw there," Ricardo
Martinez, a 47-year old baker from Santiago de Compostela, told Reuters.
REUTERS/Oscar Corral
Rescue
workers pull victims from a train crash near Santiago de Compostela,
northwestern Spain, July 24, 2013. At least 35 people were killed and 50
injured when a train derailed on the outskirts of the northern Spanish
city of Santiago de Compostela on Wednesday in one of the country's
worst rail disasters. Bodies covered in blankets lay next to carriages
as smoke billowed from the wreckage a few hundred meters away from the
entrance to the city's main station.
The Santiago de Compostela train operated by state rail company
Renfe, which had 247 people on board, derailed as the city prepared for
the renowned festival of Saint James, when thousands of Christian
pilgrims from across the world pack the streets.
The city's tourism board said all festivities, including the
traditional High Mass at the centuries-old cathedral, had been cancelled
as the city went into mourning following the crash.
Passenger Ricardo Montesco told Cadena Ser radio station the train
approached the curve at high speed, twisted and wagons piled up one on
top of the other.
"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 realized the train was
burning. ... I was in the second wagon and there was fire. ... I saw
corpses," he said.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who was born in Santiago de Compostela,
the capital of Galicia region, visited the site on Thursday morning. He
was due to go to the main hospital later in the day and hold an
emergency meeting with local authorities.
"In the face of a tragedy such as just happened in Santiago de
Compostela on the eve of its big day, I can only express my deepest
sympathy as a Spaniard and a Galician," he said in a written statement
late on Wednesday.
REUTERS/Monica Ferreiros/La Voz de Galicia
Rescue
workers help a victim of a train crash near Santiago de Compostela,
northwestern Spain, July 24, 2013. At least 56 people died after a train
derailed in the outskirts of the northern Spanish city of Santiago de
Compostela, the head of Spain's Galicia region, Alberto Nunez Feijoo,
told Television de Galicia MANDATORY CREDIT.
INVESTIGATION
Both Renfe and state-owned Adif, which is in charge of the tracks,
had opened an investigation into the cause of the derailment, Renfe
said.
The official source said no statement would be made regarding the
cause until the black boxes of the train were examined, but said it was
most likely an accident.
"We are moving away from the hypothesis of sabotage or attack," he
said. "It's too early to be 100 percent sure but speeding is a likely
cause for the accident."
Santiago mayor Angel Curras told Cadena Ser radio: "It seems the speed of the train was likely not the right one."
Clinics in Santiago de Compostela were overwhelmed with people
flocking to give blood, while hotels organized free rooms for relatives.
Madrid sent forensic scientists and hospital staff to the scene on
special flights.
The death toll was 78, a spokeswoman for Galicia's Supreme Court
said, adding that the figures were still provisional. Judges in Spain
are responsible for recording deaths.
Up to 131 people were injured, a Galicia-based spokeswoman for the office of the central government said earlier.
"The scene is shocking, it's Dante-esque," said the head of the
surrounding Galicia region, Alberto Nunez Feijoo,in a radio interview.
He said he had declared seven days of official mourning in the Galicia
region.
REUTERS/Oscar Corral
Rescue
workers pull victims from a train crash near Santiago de Compostela,
northwestern Spain, July 24, 2013. At least 35 people were killed and 50
injured when a train derailed on the outskirts of the northern Spanish
city of Santiago de Compostela on Wednesday in one of the country's
worst rail disasters. Bodies covered in blankets lay next to carriages
as smoke billowed from the wreckage a few hundred meters away from the
entrance to the city's main station.
NO BUDGET CUTS
The eight-carriage train was travelling from Madrid to Ferrol on the Galician coast when it derailed, Renfe said ina statement.
The disaster stirred memories of a train bombing in Madrid in 2004,
carried out by Islamist militants, that killed 191 people, although
officials do not appear to suspect an attack this time.
Spain is struggling to emerge from a long-running recession marked by
government-driven austerity to bring its deeply indebted finances into
order.
But Adif, the state railways infrastructure company, told Reuters no
budget cuts had been implemented on maintenance of the line, which
connects La Coruna, Santiago de Compostela and Ourense and was
inaugurated in 2011.
It said more than 100 million euros a year were being spent on track maintenance in Spain.
Firefighters called off a strike to help with the disaster, while
hospital staff, many operating on reduced salaries because of spending
cuts, worked overtime to tend the injured.
The city's festival focuses on St James, one of Jesus' 12 disciples,
whose remains are said to rest there and who is patron saint of Galicia.
The apostle's shrine is the destination of the famous El Camino de
Santiago pilgrimage across the Pyrenees, which has been followed by
Christians since the Middle Ages.
Wednesday's derailment was one of the worst rail accidents in Europe over the past 25 years.
In November 2000, 155 people were killed when a fire in a tunnel engulfed a funicular train packed with skiers in Austria.
In Montenegro, up to 46 people were killed and nearly 200 injured in
2006 when a packed train derailed and plunged into a ravine outside the
capital, Podgorica.
In Spain itself, 41 people were killed the same year when an
underground train derailed and overturned in a tunnel just before
entering the Jesus metro station in Valencia.