TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Spanish government has declared three days of national mourning following a train derailment in southern Spain that killed at least 40 people, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Monday.
The accident occurred on Sunday at around 07:45 PM local time, when a train carrying 317 passengers on the Malaga–Madrid route derailed near the town of Adamuz, about 20 kilometers north of Córdoba. The cause of the derailment remains under investigation.
As of Monday, local authorities had confirmed 40 fatalities, while 48 people were receiving treatment in hospitals, many of them in intensive care, according to reports from Xinhua cited by Antara.
Sánchez canceled his official engagements and traveled to the crash site, where he announced that the national mourning period would begin at midnight on Monday.
He described the incident as a “painful day” for Spain and pledged a full and transparent investigation.
“We will get to the truth, we will find out the answer and when we know it, we will release to the public with absolute transparency and clarity,” Sánchez said.
He also warned that the death toll could rise as heavy machinery is deployed to clear the wreckage.
Spain’s Transport Minister, Óscar Puente, said the crash was particularly unusual as it occurred on a straight section of track that had only been installed in May 2025.
He noted that the Málaga–Madrid service was operated by private rail company Iryo using train sets manufactured in 2022.
Álvaro Fernández Heredia, president of state-owned rail operator Renfe, told public broadcaster RNE that human error had “been practically ruled out,” suggesting the derailment may have been caused by a technical failure involving the train or railway infrastructure.
The president of Andalusia’s regional government, Juanma Moreno, said the impact of the crash was extremely violent, noting that some victims were found hundreds of meters from the site, suggesting passengers were thrown from the train.
Spanish media also reported that in August 2025, the national train engineers’ union had raised concerns with infrastructure operator ADIF about damage along the same rail line, including surface irregularities, uneven tracks, and issues with the overhead power system.
Read: Spain High-Speed Train Crash Kills 21, Hundreds Injured
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