At least 39 dead in Spain after two high-speed trains collide

At least 39 people have died in southern Spain after a high-speed train derailed and collided with an oncoming one on Sunday night in the worst railway accident in the country since 2013.

The accident happened near Adamuz in the province of Cordoba, about 360 km south of the capital Madrid. It left 122 people injured, with 48 still in hospital and 12 in intensive care.

"The train tipped to one side, then everything went dark, and all I heard was screams," said a young woman being treated at a Red Cross center in Adamuz. She had been traveling back to Madrid.

"There were people who were fine and others who were very, very badly injured. You had them right in front of you and you knew they were going to die, and you couldn't do anything."

Complicated rescue

The rescue operation was complicated by the remote location of the crash, which could only be accessed by a single-track road, making it difficult for ambulances to enter and exit, according to the national emergency director at the Spanish Red Cross.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez opted not to travel to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and made his way to the crash site on Monday morning.

"The death toll has risen to 39 and is not yet definitive," Transport Minister Oscar Puente said.

There were around 400 passengers on the two trains, operated by Iryo and Alvia, according to a statement from state-owned rail operator Renfe.

The Iryo train was en route from Malaga to Madrid, while the second train was heading towards Huelva.

It was too early to talk about the cause, but it happened in "strange conditions", Renfe President Álvaro Fernandez Heredia said on local radio, adding that "human error is practically ruled out."

The Alvia train coming in the opposite direction at 200 kph either collided with the final two carriages of the Iryo train that derailed or with debris on the line, Heredia said. The Iryo train was traveling at 110kph, he said, adding that it had lost a wheel that has not yet been located.

The collision happened about 20 seconds after the derailment, so there was no time to activate an emergency brake, he said.

The death toll is the highest from a train crash since 2013, when a train derailed in the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela and burst into flames, killing 80 people and injuring 145.

Over 200 trains between Madrid and the southern Andalusia region - including major cities Cordoba, Seville and Granada - were canceled on Monday.