What to know about the train crash in Spain

MADRID — A high-speed train in southern Spain derailed Sunday evening, colliding with another high-speed train, killing at least 39 people and injuring more than 150, Spanish authorities reported.

Rescue efforts were still ongoing Monday and officials said the death toll is likely to rise. The accident was the deadliest in Spain since a 2013 crash that killed 80 people when a commuter train hurtled off the rails as it came around a bend.

Here's what to know about the crash:

The derailment and collision

The derailment happened Sunday at 7:45 p.m. when the tail end of a train carrying 289 passengers on the route from Malaga to the capital, Madrid, went off the rails. It slammed into an incoming train traveling from Madrid to Huelva, another southern city, according to rail operator Adif.

The head of the second train took the brunt of the impact, Transport Minister Óscar Puente said. That collision knocked its first two carriages off the track and sent them plummeting down a 4-meter (13-foot) slope. The collision took place near Adamuz, a town in the province of Cordoba, about 370 kilometers (about 230 miles) south of Madrid.

On Monday morning, Andalusia's regional President Juan Manuel Moreno said authorities were searching the area near the accident for possible bodies.

“The impact was so incredibly violent that we have found bodies hundreds of meters away,” Moreno said.

Officials call accident ‘strange,’ with investigation underway

Explanations about what caused the crash were scant, with an official investigation underway.

Transport Minister Puente called the crash “truly strange” since it happened on a flat stretch of track that had been renovated in May. He said the train that jumped the track was less than 4 years old. That train belonged to the private company Iryo, while the second train, which took the brunt of the impact, belonged to Spain’s public train company, Renfe.

Iryo said in a statement Monday that its train was manufactured in 2022 and passed its latest safety check on Jan. 15.

The Spanish Union of Railway Drivers told the AP that in in August, it sent a letter asking Spain’s national railway operator to investigate flaws on train lines across the country and to reduce speeds at certain points until the tracks were fully repaired. Those recommendations were made for high-speed train lines, including the one where Sunday’s accident took place, the union said.

Álvaro Fernández, the president of Renfe, told Spanish public radio RNE that both trains were traveling well under the speed limit of 250 kph (155 mph) and “human error could be ruled out.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez declared three days of national mourning.

Spain's expansion of high-speed rail network

Spain has spent decades investing heavily in high-speed trains. It currently has the largest rail network in Europe for trains traveling over 250 kph, with more than 3,900 kilometers (2,400 miles) of track, according to the International Union of Railways.

The network is a popular, competitively priced and safe mode of transport. Sunday’s accident was the first with deaths on Spain’s high-speed rail network since it opened its first line in 1992.