The death toll from the derailment which yesterday at 7.39pm involved two trains on the Madrid-Andalusia high-speed line has worsened further: at least 40 victims’ bodies have been recovered between the sheets of the carriages, the emergency services report.
The tragedy occurred near Adamuz (Cordoba). On the Iryo train alone, heading from Malaga to Madrid, there were also 22 injured, according to company sources, which made a number available for the passengers’ families (900001402). Renfe has also activated a toll-free number for information on passengers on the Alvia train (900101020).
Dozens of people were injured. The accident involved an Iryo train headed from Malaga to Madrid, with 317 passengers on board, and a long-distance Alvia (Renfe) train, which with over 200 people on board was traveling in the opposite direction, from Madrid to Huelva.
“There are at least two or three carriages that have fallen down a five-metre embankment which are difficult to access. The firefighters managed to access the third carriage, there would be an undetermined number of victims.” This is what the health councilor of the Andalusia region, Antonio Sanz, said in statements to the media, in drawing up an initial assessment of the derailment of two trains on the high-speed line between Madrid and Andalusia. Sanz confirmed that “the situation is very serious”.
Sanchez, “Night of Deep Sorrow”
“Today is a night of deep sorrow for our country due to the tragic train accident in Adamus.” With this message posted on X, Pedro Sanchez expressed “the most sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of the victims”https://gazzettadelsud.it/articoli/mondo/2026/01/19/scontro-tra-due-treni-in-andalusia-due-vittime-e-traffico-sospeso-07129b57-83d1-4311-9bf1-d9d1e4a3088f/.”No words can alleviate such great suffering, but I want them to know that all the country accompanies them in these difficult moments”, wrote the Spanish Prime Minister, assuring that “all emergency services are working in a coordinated manner without stopping” to assist the victims. The head of government suspended Monday’s agenda, which included, among other things, a meeting with the leader of the Partido Popular, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, on the possible sending of soldiers on a peacekeeping mission to Ukraine. The opposition leader himself had asked to suspend the planned meeting, according to what Feijoo reported in a message which was also posted on the same social network. “The news coming from Cordoba is very serious and painful and nothing is more urgent now than to assist the victims and their families”, wrote Feijoo, assuring that “all the attention must be on the emergency and on ascertaining what could have caused this tragedy”. The Spanish monarchs Felipe VI and Letizia are also following “with concern the serious accident between two high-speed trains in Adamuz”, the Royal House informed in a statement. “We convey our deepest condolences to the families and relatives of the victims, as well as our affection and hope for a rapid recovery to the injured”, adds the note
The survivors of the derailment: alone and in the dark surrounded by dead people
“My daughter called me at 7.45pm crying, upset, saying that the train had derailed. At the moment there was no coverage. I came here to the station, directly to Renfe (the railway management body, ed.).
“They didn’t know anything. They called 112 and warned that there had been an accident. They started calling the train engineer, the controllers, no one answered. What left me stunned is that they closed the office and ran away and left us here with no news. It seemed madness to me.”
This is the testimony of the mother of a girl who was traveling in carriage number 4 of the long-distance Alvia train which was headed from Madrid to Huelva, when it collided at 7.39pm in Adamuz (Cordoba), with the derailed high-speed train of the Iryo company, which was traveling in the opposite direction, headed from Malaga to Madrid.
In statements to the public broadcaster TVE, the woman recounted the dramatic moments of the first news she received of the accident from her surviving daughter. “My daughter told me that they had managed to get out of the carriage, but that there were many dead. The passengers were alone, in the dark, no help nor the police had arrived yet. Thank God she was able to tell them. Now she is at the emergency center set up to triage the injured.”
For the Minister of Transport it is an “inexplicable accident on a straight stretch of a new line”
“Between the two convoys, the Alvia was the one that suffered the worst” in the derailment of Adamuz (Cordoba), where an Iryo high-speed train and a Renfe convoy derailed on the Madrid-Andalusia line”. This is what the Spanish Minister of Transport, Oscar Puente, explained in a press conference, explaining that the first two carriages of the Alvia, with a total of 63 passengers on board, “fell down an embankment” of about five meters.
“It is possible that the victims are more than those confirmed, but I don’t want to speculate,” said the minister, clarifying that all the injured had been evacuated from the disaster area, which was fenced off for identification of the bodies.
Puente gave no indication of the possible causes of the derailment, but noted that “the accident was extremely strange”, as it occurred “on a straight stretch, on a recently renovated line” and involved an Iryo train “practically new”https://gazzettadelsud.it/articoli/mondo/2026/01/19/scontro-tra-due-treni-in-andalusia-due-vittime-e-traffico-sospeso-07129b57-83d1-4311-9bf1-d9d1e4a3088f/.”The state of the railway route was good”, he reiterated.
“We are talking about new materials”, he added, recalling that “700 million euros” had been invested on the Andalusia-Madrid route and the work to replace the infrastructure switches was completed in May, according to Adif, the state railway manager.
“We hope that the investigation will help to clarify the causes of the accident, the head of Transport also said.
As for when the high-speed line will be restored, the minister warned that “it will remain interrupted at least tomorrow and probably for a month”https://gazzettadelsud.it/articoli/mondo/2026/01/19/scontro-tra-due-treni-in-andalusia-due-vittime-e-traffico-sospeso-07129b57-83d1-4311-9bf1-d9d1e4a3088f/.”Not only must the material be withdrawn, but there is an investigation” open into the disaster “which requires intervention on the ground in all its depth”, he reported.
Puente finally announced the creation of a “completely independent” commission of inquiry to “establish what happened and make sure it never happens again”.
Meloni: “Italy close to Spain’s pain”
“Italy is close to Spain’s pain for this tragedy.” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni writes this on X regarding the serious train accident in Andalusia which involved two high-speed trains, causing at least 24 deaths and dozens of injuries.
“It is with great sadness that I learn of the train accident that occurred in Andalusia – writes the Prime Minister – where two high-speed trains derailed. Italy is close to Spain’s pain over this tragedy. Our thoughts go to the victims, the injured and their families”.
A family originally from Punta Umbria destroyed
An entire family was wiped out in a train crash in Andalusia. Mother, father, their twelve-year-old son and a cousin originally from Punta Umbria, in the Huelva region, were among the victims of the derailment. Only the youngest daughter, six years old, was saved and emerged from the wreckage unscathed and on her own two feet, reports El Pais.