Spain Train Crash: Footage Of Disaster Emerges

The moment a train derailed killing at least 78 people in Spain has been caught by security cameras at the side of the tracks.

The train entered a sharp bend at high speed, then came off the rails, smashing into a wall running alongside, the video showed.

Survivors have described carriages flipping over and bursting into flames after the derailment just outside Santiago de Compostela, a popular pilgrimage city in northwestern Spain.

In the video, the carriage immediately behind the locomotive appears to derail first. Then all the carriages can be seen piling up behind it as the engine hurtles toward the camera position.

More than 130 people, including a Briton and several Americans, were hurt in the crash, and 36, including four children, remain in a serious condition.

Rescue workers pull passengers from the wreckage

Officials have opened an investigation, as local media reported the train was travelling at twice the speed limit.

According to El Pais newspaper, one of the two drivers reported the train was travelling at almost 120mph (190kph) when it entered the curve.

"I'm going at 190!" he told the railway station by radio, according to the Spanish newspaper, which cited sources close to the investigation.

"We're only human! We're only human!" said the driver, who was trapped in his cabin.

"I hope there aren't any dead because it will weigh on my conscience."

The speed limit on that section of track is 50mph (80kph), El Pais said.

Relatives of the passengers await news in Santiago

The Reuters news agency reported that one of the drivers had been put under formal investigation.

The train "did not have any technical problems" and had been inspected just hours earlier, the state-owned Renfe railway company said.

The Alvia 730 series train travelling from Madrid to the port city of Ferrol was carrying 218 passengers plus crew when it crashed about 8.40pm local time - 7.40pm UK time - on Wednesday.

Rescue teams worked through the night, searching the wreckage for survivors from one of the worst train disasters in Spain for decades.

Firefighters, calling off a strike to help with the disaster, clambered over the twisted metal trying to get survivors out of the windows.

The crash was the deadliest in Spain in decades

Bodies covered in blankets lay next to the overturned carriages as smoke billowed from the wreckage.

Neighbours who ran to the site to help emergency workers have described a scene of horror.

"It was like an earthquake," said Martin Rozas who helped pull the wounded from the wreckage and laid blankets over the dead.

"I started helping pull people out. I saw about five people dead."

At dawn, some carriages were lifted from the tracks. By mid-day, the rescue workers had stopped looking for bodies.

Many of the dead were taken to a makeshift morgue set up in a sports arena in Santiago, where police and court officials were identifying the bodies.

Relatives of victims sobbed and hugged each other at a nearby information point for families seeking news about their missing loved ones.

Emergency crews at the scene hours after the crash

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who was born in the city, visited the site and the main hospital, announcing three days of mourning across Spain.

The crash occurred on the eve of a major Christian religious festival honouring St James, the disciple of Jesus whose remains are said to rest in a shrine.

Many of the dead or injured were believed to be Catholic pilgrims converging on the city. Officials have now cancelled ceremonies planned for today.

The Spanish royal family has suspended all engagements.

Alvias are high-speed but do not go as fast as Spain's fastest bullet trains called AVEs.

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