UPDATE - At least 7 dead, 25 seriously injured in high-speed train accident in Spain

UPDATES CASUALITIES; ADDS REMARKS FROM MAYOR; REVISES HEAD, DECK, LEDE

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - At least seven people were killed and 25 others seriously injured Sunday night in a high-speed rail accident in southern Spain, police sources told local media.

Another 75 people suffered minor injuries, broadcaster RTVE reported.

The accident occurred when a train traveling from Malaga to Madrid derailed and encroached onto an adjacent track, causing a second train heading south from Madrid to also derail, according to Spanish rail operator Adif.

RTVE said fatalities were reported on both trains.

Rafael Moreno, the mayor of Adamuz, Cordoba, a city near the accident site, was the first to arrive at the scene along with local police. He said he saw at least one body several meters from the point of impact.

"I saw a passenger reduced to rags," Moreno told Spanish daily El Pais. "There was no light, it was nighttime. The scene is horrific."

The accident forced the cancellation of all high-speed trains traveling between Madrid and Andalusia, affecting thousands of travelers.

“Very worried about the serious rail accident in Cordoba. We’ve sent emergency services and logistical support to help however we can,” Andalusia President Juanma Moreno posted on US social media company X.

Salvador Jimenez, a journalist with Spain’s national radio RNE, was on board the train traveling to Madrid.

He told RTVE that one of the wagons on his train had “completely flipped.”

“There was a moment that felt like an earthquake and that’s when the train derailed,” he said.

Jimenez added that “hundreds of passengers” were waiting near the derailment site.

Spain suffered one of its deadliest rail disasters in 2013, when a high-speed train traveling from Madrid to Galicia derailed, killing 79 people and injuring 179 others.