77 Dead in Northwest Spain Train Crash

Local Editor

A train hurtled off the tracks in northwest Spain killing at least 77 passengers and injuring more than 140, an official said Thursday, with the media suggesting the tragedy could be due to speeding.

Four carriages overturned in the smash late Wednesday, smoke billowing from the wreckage, as bodies were lain out under blankets along the tracks.

The wagons piled into each other and folded up like an accordion. One was ripped apart by the force of the crash, one of its ends pushed up into the air.
Several witnesses spoke of a loud explosion.

"I was at home and I heard something like a clap of thunder, It was very loud and there was lots of smoke," said 62-year-old Maria Teresa Ramos, who lived just meters from where the accident happened.
"It's a disaster, people are crying out. Nobody has ever seen anything like this," she added.
Rescue workers recovered 73 bodies from the train's wreckage and four more victims died later in hospital, said a spokesman for the Galicia high court, increasing an earlier toll figure.
A total of 143 people were said to have various injuries.

Public television TVE said the train may have derailed because it was speeding at the time of the accident but a spokesman for state railway company Renfe said it was too soon to say what caused the accident.
"There is an investigation underway and we have to wait. We will know what the speed is very soon when we consult the train's black box," a Renfe spokesman said.
The accident happened on a stretch of high-speed track about four kilometers from the main train station in Santiago de Compostela, the destination of the famous El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage which has been followed by Christians since the Middle Ages.

The train was the Alvia model which is able to adapt between high-speed and normal tracks.
The disaster was one of the worst in the history of Spain's rail network.
In 1944, hundreds were killed in a crash also between Madrid and Galicia.
In 1972, 77 people were killed in a derailment in Andalusia in the south.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team