Spanish train derailment claims six lives

Yesterday's derailment of a train carrying hundreds of passengers in northern Spain killed at least six people and injured about 60, authorities said.

The six-carriage train went off the tracks shortly before 4pm local time near the town of Villada in Palencia province, about 95 miles north-west of Madrid, according to the state rail company RENFE.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known, but there was no indication of terrorism or other foul play, said Civil Guard spokesman Ruben Marcos.

Five people were pronounced dead at the scene and a 30-year-old man died later at a hospital in the city of Valladolid, said Carmelo Rincon, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.

Sixty people were injured, two of them seriously. Most of the others were treated at the scene, he said.

Police said the derailment occurred near the town’s train station. TV footage showed the mangled train carriages, and seats and backpacks spread across the tracks.

The train, carrying 426 passengers, was heading from the north-west Galicia region through the Basque region toward the border with France when it derailed.

Witnesses said the train was carrying many pilgrims who were returning from a religious event.

The accident came just over a month after 43 people were killed when an underground train derailed in central Valencia in eastern Spain. That accident - the worst for an underground system in Spain – was blamed on excessive speed.