68 killed in Spanish train crash

BARCELONA, Oct 28: At least 68 people died when two Spanish high-speed trains collided on Wednesday, with rescue workers scouring the wreckage for more bodies after Spain's second deadly rail accident this year.

Hundreds of ambulances, funeral home vans and helicopters were parked next to one of the trains, with several carriages on an elevated section of track while twisted metal, broken panels and wreckage could be seen strewn across an embankment beneath the line where at least three carriages had plunged down.

Evacuated passengers streamed along a road near the scene, some splattered with blood or with their wounds bandaged, others wheeling suitcases and being given water by volunteers who said it had been donated from neighbouring towns.

Miguel, a passenger travelling with several colleagues in the rear car of one of the trains, described to COPE radio the moment of the accident.

"We heard a massive roar, a truly enormous thud that went on for 10 seconds, as if the train were about to derail. Through the right-hand window, we could see a wrecked train," he said.

The collision comes nine months after an accident between high-speed trains belonging to the same operators and on the same line that killed 46 people.

That crash in January, which occurred after a train derailed and smashed into an oncoming train near Adamuz, in Cordoba province, triggered a debate about the level of investment in railway maintenance in recent years.-Reuters