Spain mourns the victims of the recent train disaster that killed 68 people

Oct 29 (Jowhar)- Fear and sorrow struck Spain on Thursday as the country entered three days of mourning following a high-speed train crash – the second of its kind this year – which resulted in the deaths of 68 people and dozens more injured, as families strive to obtain information about their missing relatives.

This disaster, one of the deadliest train accidents in Europe this century, has reignited scrutiny of the safety of Spain's rail network after the transport minister pointed to a "mistake" he described as circumstances surrounding the crash that were "inexplicable."

The accident occurred yesterday morning in the central region of Castilla-La Mancha, when a high-speed service operated by the state-owned train company Renfe collided with the rear of a stationary train operated by a private Spanish company, Iryo.

As darkness fell, emergency responders continued to work on the twisted wreckage of the main line connecting Madrid and the southern city of Seville, using cranes to lift metal debris in search of additional victims.

Josimar Medina, a 31-year-old from Peru, who was on holiday in Spain with his girlfriend, said he was asleep on the Renfe train when the impact jolted him awake. “I woke up and I was in the air,” he said.

Another survivor, Pablo Mejia, 42, reported sustaining head injuries but believes a second decision he made to change seats saved his life.

With blood on his light jacket and a battered bag, he described what happened: “very severe injuries … many people on the ground, piled on top of each other, torn chairs, bags, a lot of chaos.”

“I think I was reborn,” he said.

Two people are awaiting further news outside a center designated for the relatives of the missing victims.

‘Long, hard hours’

The nearby village of Urda, approximately 130km south of Madrid, officials have converted a school into a center where relatives can seek new information and report on their missing loved ones.

Red Cross teams were ready to support families arriving in groups – some in tears – as police and journalists from around the world gathered nearby.

Red Cross psychologist Carmen Garcia warned that “long, hard hours” are ahead, emphasizing that everyone copes with trauma differently.

“We have people in shock, who are not aware of what happened, angry people, grieving people, and worried people. The grieving will find it hard.”

To expedite identification efforts, the Civil Guard has opened four offices in Madrid, Toledo, Cordoba, and Seville where relatives can provide DNA samples to assist in identifying those still unaccounted for.

Officials have also set up blood donation sites in Castilla-La Mancha and Madrid.

Jose Miguel Fernandez, the parish priest of Urda, joined emergency responders to provide comfort to families awaiting news.

“The most important thing is to be with the relatives of the victims, to feel a sense of closeness, because words at a time like this are meaningless, but a hug helps,” he said.

Mr. Fernandez stated that when he arrived quickly at the crash site, he encountered what he called “a scene of devastation, despair, uncertainty, death.”

‘Unexplainable circumstances’

The Spanish Minister of Transport, Oscar Puente, said yesterday that an automatic control system failed on a 69km stretch of road, which forced trains in the area to stop.

Despite the crash, the control center chose to “restart traffic under conditions, in our view, that are unexplainable,” Mr. Puente said. The Renfe train then traveled 25km before colliding with the Iryo train.

The control center “had more than enough time to confirm the error and did not rectify it,” he added.

The crash follows another high-speed train disaster in January, when two trains collided in the southern region of Andalusia after one veered off and entered an adjacent track, killing 46 people.

That investigation is still ongoing, but the left-wing government has already faced strong criticism over how it manages Spain's train system.

The latest disaster came just a month before Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, a socialist, attempted to counter unfavorable polling and ensure an extension of his eight-year term ahead of a general election scheduled for November 29.