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More than 20 people were killed and dozens injured after a high-speed train derailed in southern Spain on Sunday, jumped in the opposite direction and hit an oncoming train.
An overnight train between Malaga and Madrid derailed and crashed into a train bound for Huelva, another southern Spanish city, from Madrid, Spanish train operator Adif said.
Antonio Sanz, the health minister of the region of Andalusia where the accident occurred, said that officials had told him that the death toll could rise to more than 20.
The rescue operation is ongoing and 73 injured passengers have been taken to six different hospitals, they said.
Maria Belen Moya Rojas, head of the region’s civil protection, told Canal Sur that the accident was in an area that was difficult to access.
Local people were taking blankets and water to help the victims, she said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a post on X that she was following the “terrible news” from Cordoba.
“You are in my thoughts tonight,” she wrote in Spanish.
Adif said train services between Madrid and Andalusian cities would not run on Monday.