MADRID – A passenger train derailed Wednesday night on a curvy stretch of track in northwestern Spain, killing at least 40 people and injuring more than 140 in the country’s worst rail accident in decades, officials said.

Bodies were covered in blankets next to the tracks and rescue workers tried to get trapped people out of the train’s cars, with smoke billowing from some of the wreckage. Some passengers were pulled out of broken windows, and one man stood atop a carriage lying on its side, using a pickaxe to try to smash through a window. Images showed one car pointing up into the air with one of its ends twisted and disfigured, and another severed in two.

Officials gave differing death tolls in the immediate aftermath of the crash just outside Santiago de Compostela.

Alberto Nunez Feijoo, president of the region of Galicia where Santiago de Compostela is the capital, said at least 40 people died. But the president of Galicia’s main court, Miguel Angel Cadenas, was quoted from the scene by the Cadena Ser radio station saying 56 died. Rescue workers were still searching through the smoldering wreckage of the train’s cars Thursday morning in the pre-dawn darkness.

State-owned train operator Renfe said in a statement that 218 passengers and an unspecified number of staff were on board the eight-carriage train during the 8.41 p.m. (1841 GMT) crash on a section of tracks about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) from Santiago de Compostela that came online two years ago .

Renfe and track operator Adif were cooperating with a judge who has been appointed to investigate the accident, Renfe said.

A regional Galicia health official told reporters early Thursday morning that more than 140 passengers from the train had been treated at area hospitals, with their conditions ranging from light injuries to serious and some still in surgery hours after the crash. She was not identified by Spanish National Television as it aired her speaking to reporters at a press conference.

 


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