Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has promised to shed light on why two high-speed trains collided in southern Spain, killing at least 40 people, as rescuers continue to search the wreckage.
After visiting the accident site, Sánchez also announced three days of national mourning for the victims.
More than 120 other people were injured when carriages of a Madrid-bound train derailed and crossed the opposite track, colliding with an oncoming train in Adamuz on Sunday evening.
This is the worst crash the country has seen in more than a decade.
Rail network operator Adif said the collision occurred at 7:45 p.m. local time (1845 GMT) on Sunday, about an hour after one of the trains left Málaga heading north towards Madrid, when it derailed on a section of straight track near the city of Córdoba.
The force of the accident pushed the carriages of the second train against an embankment, according to Transport Minister Óscar Puente. He added that most of those killed and injured were in the front carriages of the second train, which was traveling south from Madrid to Huelva.
Rescue teams said twisted debris from the trains made it difficult to recover people trapped inside the carriages.
Sánchez visited the accident site with senior officials on Monday afternoon.
“It is a day of sadness for all of Spain, for all of our country,” he told reporters.
“We are going to find out the truth, we are going to find the answer, and when this answer about the origin and cause of this tragedy is known, as it could not be otherwise, with absolute transparency and clarity, we will make it public.”
Puente said an investigation could take at least a month, calling the incident “extremely strange.”
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But the Reuters news agency cited an anonymous source briefed on initial investigations, saying experts had found a faulty joint in the rails, which was causing the gap between sections of rail to widen as trains ran over them. They added that the joint was key to identifying the cause of the accident.
Spanish newspaper El País said it was unclear whether the defect was a cause or consequence of the accident.
Four hundred passengers and staff were on board the two trains, railway authorities said. Emergency services treated 122 people, of whom 41, including children, remain in hospital. Among them, 12 are in intensive care.
Puente said the death toll “is not yet final.” Authorities are working to identify the dead.
The type of train involved in the accident was a Freccia 1000, which can reach a maximum speed of 400 km/h (250 mph), a spokesperson for Italian railway company Ferrovie dello Stato told Reuters.
Salvador Jimenez, an RTVE journalist who was on one of the trains, said the impact felt like an “earthquake.”
“I was in the first train car. There was a moment where it felt like an earthquake and the train had actually derailed,” Jimenez said.
Footage from the scene appears to show some of the carriages overturned on their sides. Rescue workers can be seen climbing the train to extract passengers from unbalanced doors and windows.
José, a Madrid-bound passenger, told public broadcaster Canal Sur: “There were people screaming and calling for doctors.”
All high-speed services between Madrid and the southern cities of Malaga, Cordoba, Seville and Huelva have been suspended until Friday.
King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia said they were following the news of the disaster “with great concern” and offered their “deepest condolences.”
The Andalusia region’s emergency agency urged all survivors of the crash to contact their families or post on social media that they are alive.
The Spanish Red Cross deployed emergency support services on site, while also offering advice to nearby families.
Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, of the Red Cross, told RNE radio: “Families are experiencing a situation of great anxiety due to the lack of information. These are very difficult times.”
In 2013, Spain experienced its worst high-speed train derailment in Galicia, northwest Spain, which left 80 people dead and another 140 injured.
Spain’s high-speed rail network is the second largest in the world, behind China, connecting more than 50 cities across the country. Adif data shows that the Spanish railway is more than 4,000 km long (2,485 miles).
