What we know about the deadly train crash in Spain as prime minister vows to ‘get to the truth’

At least 40 people were killed and dozens more injured following the collision near the small town of Adamuz, about 360 km (223 miles) south of Madrid.

According to a preliminary report, the tail end of a northbound train derailed and crossed onto the adjacent track, where a southbound train was approaching. 

The rear of the northbound train, operated by private rail company Iryo, was struck by the front of the southbound train, operated by state rail company Renfe. This prompted both vehicles to overturn, with the front cars of the second train plunging down an embankment.

After visiting the scene, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez promised Monday to “get to the truth” behind the causes of the crash. He announced three days of mourning.

“We will find the answer, and when it is known, with absolute transparency and clarity, we will inform the public,” Sanchez said at a press conference in Adamuz, near the site of the collision.

Sanchez – who cancelled his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he was set to hold a meeting with US President Donald Trump – added that the Spanish government would protect and assist the train victims “for as long as necessary.”

Members of the Spanish Civil Guard, along with other emergency personnel, work next to one of the trains involved in the accident, at the site of a deadly derailment of two high-speed trains near Adamuz, in Cordoba, Spain, on January 19, 2026.

One survivor, Rocío Flores, who was on the southbound train, said: “We were thrown through the air. Thank God I’m okay; there were many people worse off than me.”

The head of the regional government of Andalucia, Juan Manuel Moreno, said Monday that 40 people had died and dozens remained hospitalized following the crash.

Families and friends of the passengers gathered in Coroba’s Reina Sofia Hospital on Monday to learn more about the conditions of their loved ones.

A man named Prieto told CNN that he came to the hospital because his friend, a military doctor who had just returned from a mission in Iraq, was unaccounted for after the crash.

‘Everything went dark’

In the aftermath, some passengers were seen scrambling out of the windows, while others escaped via the roof, according to video verified by CNN.

A woman who gave her name as Ana said the northbound train “tipped to one side … then everything went dark, and all I heard was screams.”

Her face covered with bandages, she told Reuters that she was dragged out of the train covered in blood through a window by other passengers who had escaped. Firefighters rescued ⁠her sister from the wreckage, she said.

She said many of the passengers were severely injured. “You had them right in front of you and you knew they were going to die, and you couldn’t do anything.”

Gonzalo Sanchez, a resident of Adamuz, told CNN he witnessed scenes of “death and destruction” as he arrived to render aid to the injured passengers.