The country is still mourning one of the deadliest railway disasters in Spain’s modern history, in which two high-speed trains collided in the southern province of Cordoba, killing dozens of people and injuring hundreds.
A routine Sunday night for hundreds of travellers between some of Spain’s busiest cities turned tragic when one train derailed near the town of Adamuz before crossing onto the opposite track and colliding with an oncoming passenger train.
Two routine trips turned into one of the biggest emergency responses in the country in over a decade in a matter of seconds.
The crash happened just before 8 p.m. local time, Spanish authorities said, when an Iryo high-speed train was travelling from Malaga to Madrid.
The last carriages of the train derailed without warning just before it reached the track of a Renfe train travelling from Madrid to Huelva, investigators say.
The blow badly damaged both trains with a number of carriages derailing and some rolling down an embankment alongside the railway track.
Within minutes, emergency services from all over Andalusia were hurtling towards the remote crash site.
Firefighters, paramedics, police officers and rescue specialists carefully removed twisted metal and searched the wreckage for survivors through the night.
The difficult terrain surrounding the rail line made rescue operations all the more difficult.
Heavy equipment had to be brought in slowly because the only way into the area was a narrow rural road, officials said.
But emergency crews worked through the night, hoping to find more survivors.
Ambulances ferried the injured from the scene as emergency plans were triggered in hospitals in Cordoba, Seville, Malaga and Madrid.
Doctors, nurses and trauma teams were on standby for an expected influx of patients, while blood donation centers were appealing for volunteers to help provide emergency medical treatment.
Many of the passengers who survived the collision later described scenes of confusion and panic inside the trains.
Several said they first thought they had felt a strong earthquake before they realised the train had derailed.
Others said they heard screams in the dark as bags rained down from overhead compartments and windows shattered on impact.
Some passengers helped strangers out through broken windows before emergency crews arrived.
The courage of those individuals became a large part of the story of the tragedy, with survivors recounting how total strangers came together to help the injured while awaiting rescue teams.
Authorities later said the two trains had been carrying more than 500 passengers and crew members.
The death toll rose to 46 as rescue work shifted to recovery, with hundreds others being treated for injuries from minor cuts to life-threatening trauma, officials said.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the site shortly after the disaster and declared a period of national mourning.
The crash was a tragedy that had touched the entire country, he said, and promised investigators would conduct a thorough and open investigation into what caused the crash.
Spain’s Transport Minister, Óscar Puente, also visited the site.
He said the derailment was “extremely strange” because it happened on a newly upgraded stretch of straight track where major problems were not expected.
Investigators have emphasised that a thorough technical analysis will be required to pinpoint the exact cause, and that no conclusions should be reached until all the evidence has been assessed.
Rail safety experts were on the scene right away, collecting evidence.
Investigators are examining track conditions, train maintenance records, onboard data recorders, signalling systems and communications between train crews and railway control centers.
Initial results have turned attention to a possible fault in the railway infrastructure. There have been reports of a broken rail joint that may have caused the initial derailment.
Officials have emphasised that the investigation is still underway and that more results will be published once engineers finish their detailed analysis. “There hasn’t been a major focus on human error in the investigation.”
The disaster has also sparked a national debate about rail safety, despite Spain’s reputation for having one of the largest and most modern high-speed rail networks in Europe.
The country’s rail network has been considered one of the safest in the world for a long time, connecting more than fifty cities with thousands of kilometres of high-speed lines.
But experts say no transport network is without risk, especially when it involves complex infrastructure.
The tragedy has prompted calls for more inspections and reviews of maintenance procedures across sections of the national rail network.
After news of the disaster, leaders around the world offered their condolences.
Messages of sympathy for the victims, their families and the emergency personnel who had responded to the crash were also sent by neighbouring European governments and international organisations.
Railway stations became gathering points for relatives and survivors, with the Spanish Red Cross deploying crisis counsellors to assist them and authorities working to identify the victims and provide updates to anxious families.
There was uncertainty for many families in the hours following the collision.
Relatives jammed emergency hotlines seeking information about loved ones believed to have been on the trains.
At a number of railway stations, reception centers were set up where family members could be brought up to date, counselled and given practical assistance while waiting for official confirmation.
As the rescue teams finish their work and investigators begin to examine the wreckage more closely, it is slowly turning to how such a terrible accident could have happened on one of Europe’s most sophisticated rail networks.
That process could take months.
Officials have repeatedly asked the public to refrain from speculation until investigators finish their analysis and release a final report.
For now, Spain remembers those who died, supporting the survivors and the families whose lives changed forever in just a few seconds.
Trains will once again run through the area, but the happenings in Adamuz have been enshrined in the country’s railway history — a tragedy that will be studied closely in the hope that lessons learned can help avoid similar disasters in the future.