A loud bang, followed by screams, flying objects, blood and then darkness - this is how survivors of the train crash in southern Spain yesterday evening described the moment of the collision in the accident that killed at least 39 people, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
The high-speed trains were carrying around 400 people when the accident happened near Adamus, in the province of Cordoba, in the autonomous region of Andalusia, about 360 kilometers south of the capital Madrid.
According to emergency services, 122 people were injured, 48 of whom are still in hospital and 12 are in intensive care compartment.
Most survivors said today that they did not realize the scale of the disaster until they went outside and saw injured or dead passengers and rescue workers on the tracks.
“I started to get up and thought this is not normal. Then I looked for my sister. That is the last thing I remember before everything went dark“, said Ana, a young woman returning to Madrid. She described being pulled from the train through the window by other passengers who had managed to escape. Firefighters rescued her sister from the wreckage, and an ambulance took them both to hospital. “There were people who were fine and others who were very, very badly injured. "You could see them dying, and there was nothing you could do," she said.
Residents of Adamus said the entire town had mobilized, with people bringing water, blankets and food to help the injured passengers.
"This will not be forgotten," said Salvador Jimenez, a journalist for Spanish state broadcaster RTVE who was pulled from one of the trains. "It's a lottery, after all." Many of us were lucky.“
Paki, who owns a farm in the area and rushed to the scene with her husband, described horrific scenes in and around the trains: “Parts of people who were no longer people, hands too... My husband saw a child who had died inside... another child calling for his mother, looking for his mother“, she said. “I can't sleep, these images stay in your mind.“
Another passenger, Raquel, told local radio station “Cadena Ser“: “I was thrown out of the back of the train and I opened the door with my head“, she said, adding that she briefly lost consciousness before she could reach the firefighters.“