THIRTEEN PEOPLE were killed and another 14 injured when a high-speed train slammed into them late on Wednesday night as they tried to cross a railway line to get to a festival on a beach near Barcelona.
It was originally thought 12 had been killed, but after forensic examination of the remains, a 13th victim was discovered, the Catalan Minister of Justice Monserrate Tura said late last night.
The incident occurred at the Castelldefels Playa station, 20km south of Barcelona, as groups of youthful revellers were making their way to the nearby beach to celebrate midsummer with late night beach parties.
Officials say the victims, aged 16-25, had just got off a crowded train from Barcelona when they apparently ignored the pedestrian underpass and decided to cross over the tracks.
At that moment the north-bound Alaris train, linking Alicante with Barcelona, sped through the station at 139km an hour. The permitted limit is 150km an hour – at which speed it would have required one kilometre to bring the train to a halt after applying the brakes.
The driver, who gave a negative alcohol test, is being treated for shock. He told police he sounded the horn and tried to brake, but could do nothing to avoid the people on the tracks. There were no injuries to people on board his express train.
Rescuers worked through the night comforting survivors, ferrying the injured to hospital and removing bodies from the tracks. Some of the dead were so badly mutilated that officials fear identification could take several days.
The line was closed until noon yesterday to clear the wreckage and search for clues. Jose Montilla, the president of the regional government of Catalonia, who visited the scene of the incident, said many of the passengers were of South American origin.
Marcelo Cardona, from Bolivia, told journalists he had been on the local train and was waiting on the platform to cross to the beach when the express sped through. “There were mutilated people, blood on the platform, blood everywhere and people screaming,” he said.
Another eyewitness said the Alaris was coming so fast that there was no way the victims could have jumped out of its path. “The noise was like rocks being crushed,” said a local resident. Spain has a modern railway network with a good safety record. The incident is Spain’s worst rail disaster since 2003, when 19 people were killed when two trains collided near Chinchilla.
The seaside town of Castelldefels is a popular commuter town for workers from Barcelona. The station is a modern one, having recently undergone a major facelift. In addition to the pedestrian underpass, there is also an overhead bridge to cross the lines. It is believed the victims decided to avoid the crush in the underpass and take a short cut to the beach.
The Feast of San Juan (St John), held on June 24th, is a public holiday in many parts of Spain.