Death toll from Spanish rail disaster rises to 77

At least 77 people died and 143 were injured when a train hurtled off the tracks along a high-speed line in northwest Spain yesterday, a regional court spokesman said, increasing an earlier toll.

Four carriages overturned in the smash, smoke billowing from the wreckage, as bodies were lain out under blankets along the tracks.

The wagons piled into each other and folded up like an accordion. One was ripped apart by the force of the crash, one of its ends pushed up into the air.

Disaster struck at 8:42 pm (1:42am, Malaysian time) as the train carrying 218 passengers and four staff was about to enter Santiago de Compostela station in the northwestern region of Galicia.

Rescue workers help a victim of a train crash near Santiago de Compostela, northwestern Spain yesterday. At least 69 people died after a train derailed in the outskirts of the northern Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela, the head of Spain's Galicia region, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, told Television de Galicia yesterday.v


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Spain declares three days of mourning over rail crash

Spain will observe three days of mourning for the victims of a train crash that killed at least 78 passengers and injured more than 140, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said today.

"Today I will sign a decree declaring three days of official mourning in all of Spain," he told reporters in his hometown of Santiago de Compostela where the disaster occurred yesterday.

"I want to express on the behalf of myself and the Spanish government my condolences to all the families of the people who have died, of which unfortunately there are too many."

Rajoy was accompanied by the president of the region of Galicia, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, who had already declared seven days of mourning within the region.

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