At least 41 people were killed on Monday and 47 injured when a packed metro train was derailed on the underground railway system of the eastern Spanish city of Valencia. ”There may be other bodies, forensic police are working intensively at the accident scene,” said Antonio Bernabe, a central government official, adding that the accident was one of the worst ever on a European Union underground system.
With other bodies feared to be trapped in the wreckage, there were questions as to how the speeding two-carriage train could have crashed without having struck another train. The authorities at first blamed the crash on going too fast and a carriage wheel fracturing. ”It seems this unfortunate accident was caused by excess speed and a wheel breaking just before [the train] entered the station,” a government official, Luis Felipe MartÃÂnez, told Spanish radio.
One witness said she heard a very loud noise and saw sparks fly deep inside the tunnel, the state news agency Efe reported. Trapped passengers on the midday train rang emergency services from cellphones, and smashed windows to escape, as 150 people were evacuated from the nearest station platform.
”I heard strange noises and then blanked out,” one passenger told a radio station. ”I was able to get out through one of the windows.” Emergency services set up two field hospitals in tents on the street. Hospitals appealed for blood donors.
The Valencia regional government, which runs the 18-year-old metro, said the train had been checked a week ago. Unions, however, pointed to a three-train crash last year when 35 people were hurt, and questioned maintenance policy. – Guardian Unlimited Â