MADRID (AP) — A high-speed train derailment in southern Spain has left at least 39 people dead and injured more than 150, according to authorities.
Rail travel in Europe is a common, relatively affordable and convenient way for many Europeans and tourists to travel. Major railway accidents have decreased since 2010, according to the European Union, yet the crash in Spain is a reminder of how deadly they can be when they happen.
Here is a look at some of the most deadly train, tram and subway crashes in Europe in recent years.
September 2025: A popular street car in Lisbon derailed and crashed into a building, killing 16 people and injuring 21. A preliminary report into the funicular crash found that an underground cable acting as a counterweight between the two tram cars was unsuitable for use and broke.
February 2023: A passenger train in northern Greece carrying hundreds of people collided at high speed with an oncoming freight train, resulting in a fiery wreck that killed 57 people. An investigative report into the crash blamed human error, outdated infrastructure and major systemic failures.
July 2016: Two Italian commuter trains collided head-on between towns in the southern region of Puglia, killing 31 people and injuring scores more. An investigation found an error of communication between the stations that each train had departed from.
July 2013: A commuter train in Spain hurtled off the rails as it came around a bend near the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela, killing 80 and injuring 145 others. An investigation showed the train was traveling at 179 kph (111 mph) on a stretch with an 80 kph (50 mph) speed limit when it left the tracks and smashed into a wall.
February 2010: Two commuter trains just outside Brussels slammed into one another during morning rush hour when one ran a red light. In all, 19 people were killed and 171 injured in Belgium's worst train crash.
June 2009: A freight train in Italy carrying gas derailed at the Viareggio station, near the Tuscan city of Lucca, and exploded, killing 32 people. Poorly maintained axles of the train were blamed.
July 2006: A subway train traveling at excessive speed crashed in an underground tunnel in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia, killing 43 people and injuring scores more. It took 13 years for a court to find four managers of the city’s subway system guilty of negligent manslaughter for not taking the necessary safety measures needed to prevent the tragedy.
January 2006: The failure of a braking system on a train in Montenegro caused it to derail and plunge into a ravine outside the capital, Podgorica. The crash killed 45 people, including five children, and injured a further 184. It was the worst train disaster in Montenegro’s history.
November 2000: A cable car on a funicular railway in Austria caught fire in a mountain tunnel in Kaprun, killing 155 people. Those who died were skiers and snowboarders heading to the slopes of the Kitzsteinhorn mountain.
October 1999: A train heading out of London’s Paddington station went through a red light and crashed into an incoming high-speed train, killing 31 people. Around 400 people were injured.
June 1998: A high-speed train in Germany traveling at 200 kph (125 mph) collided with a bridge at Eschede, causing it to collapse. The crash killed 101 people and injured a further 100. It was Germany’s deadliest postwar rail disaster.
FILE - Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a train derailment in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on July 24 2013. (AP Photo/La Voz de Galicia/Monica Ferreiros, File)
FILE - Rescuers at the site of a train collision in Tempe, about 376 kilometres (235 miles) north of Athens, near Larissa city, Greece, Friday, March 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos, File)
BARCELONA (AP) — A Barcelona commuter train crashed Tuesday after a retaining wall fell onto the tracks, Spanish regional authorities said, killing at least one person and injuring 37 others.
The crash in Catalonia in northeastern Spain came just two days after a separate deadly train collision killed at least 42 people in the country's south and injured dozens more.
Emergency workers Tuesday were still searching for more victims in the wreckage from Sunday's deadly train accident that took place some 800 kilometers (497 miles) away as the nation began three days of mourning.
Emergency services in Catalonia said of the 37 people affected by Tuesday's crash, five were seriously injured. Six others were in less serious condition. Emergency services said 20 ambulances had been sent to the site of the crash, and that the injured were taken to three hospitals in the area.
While Spain’s high-speed rail network generally runs smoothly, and at least until Sunday had been a source of confidence, the commuter rail service is plagued by reliability issues. However, accidents causing injury or death are not common in either.
The commuter train crashed near the town of Gelida, located about 35 minutes outside of Barcelona.
Spain’s railway operator ADIF said the containment wall likely collapsed due to heavy rainfall that swept across the northeastern Spanish region this week. Commuter train service was canceled along the line, it said.
The Sunday crash happened at 7:45 p.m. when the tail end of a train carrying 289 passengers on the route from Malaga to the capital, Madrid, derailed and crashed into an incoming train traveling from Madrid to Huelva, another southern city, according to rail operator Adif. Authorities were still recovering more bodies on Tuesday.
Fidel Sáez lost his mother in the wreck, but his two children, his brother and a nephew survived. Their trip to the capital to see musical “The Lion King” turned into a nightmare on the way home.
“My brother has been taken off respirator. He told me that it was a miracle that he is alive. He had to get the children through a window,” Sáez told national TV broadcaster TVE. “He also asked me to tell the story of our mother, how good she was."
Health authorities said 39 people remained in hospitals on Tuesday morning, while 83 people were treated and discharged.
Among them was Emil Johnson, a Swedish citizen based in Malaga who was traveling to Madrid to renew his passport.
“It was probably two, three seconds. And everything was broken,” Jonsson, sitting in a wheelchair due to bruises on his ribs and back and dressed in part of a hospital gown, told reporters. “When we crashed, I didn’t know who was alive and who was dead.”
Amid the tragedy, it emerged that a 6-year-old girl who survived the wreck was virtually unscathed, while her parents, brother and cousin all perished.
The mayor of their hometown called her survival a “miracle.”
The front of the second train, which was carrying 184 people, took the brunt of the impact, which knocked its first two carriages off the track and down a 4-meter (13-foot) slope. Some bodies were found hundreds of meters (feet) from the crash site, according to Andalusia regional President Juanma Moreno.
Associated Press images taken Tuesday showed the remains of the first two cars of the second train, severed from the rest of the train and lying beside the tracks. Train seats had been ejected onto the rocks that provide packing under the tracks.
Further along the tracks, Civil Guard officers inspected the interior of the first train with dogs as passengers’ belongings lay scattered on the floor, according to the video distributed by authorities. The last carriage was lying on its side on the tracks, and the second-to-last carriage was leaning to one side with all its windows shattered.
Officials are continuing to investigate the causes of the accident that Puente has called “truly strange” since it occurred on a straight line and neither train was speeding.
Puente said officials had found a broken section of track that could possibly be related to the accident's origin, while insisting that is just a hypothesis and that it could take weeks to reach any conclusions.
“Now we have to determine if that is a cause or a consequence (of the derailment),” Puente told Spanish radio Cadena Ser.
At this time, “all hypotheses are open,” Grande Marlaska told a press conference. Accident investigators will analyze “the rails at the point where the derailment began and inspect the wheels" of the first train in a laboratory, he added.
The train that jumped the track belonged to the private company Iryo, while the second train belonged to Spain’s public train company, Renfe.
Iryo said in a statement Monday that its train was manufactured in 2022 and had passed a safety check on Jan. 15.
Puente and Renfe president Álvaro Fernández said that both trains were traveling well under the speed limit of 250 kph (155 mph) and “human error could be ruled out.”
The accident shook a nation that leads Europe in high-speed train mileage and takes pride in a network that is considered at the cutting edge of rail transport.
“It is undoubtedly a hard blow, and I have to work so it doesn’t affect the credibility and strength of the network,” Puente told Spanish national radio RNE on Tuesday when asked about the damage to the reputation of the rail system.
Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia visited the scene of the accident, where they greeted emergency workers as well as some local residents who helped in the initial stages of the rescue. Afterward, they went to hospital in Cordoba where many of the injured remain under care.
“We are all responsible for not looking away when the debris of a catastrophe is being cleared away," said Letizia to reporters after the visit.
Spain's Civil Guard is collecting DNA samples from family members who fear they have loved ones among the unidentified dead.
High-speed trains resumed service Tuesday from Madrid to Sevilla and Malaga, the largest cities in Andalusia, Spain’s most populous region, but passengers had to travel a stretch of the journey by buses provided by the rail service. Minister Puente said that the normal train service won’t resume until early February.
Spanish airline Iberia added more flights to southern cities until Sunday to help stranded travelers. Some bus companies also reinforced their services in the south.
Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain. Naishadham reported from Madrid.
Emergency crews respond after a commuter train derailed when a retaining wall collapsed onto the tracks in Gelida, near Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Mateu Parra)
Emergency crews respond after a commuter train derailed when a retaining wall collapsed onto the tracks in Gelida, near Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Mateu Parra)
Emergency crews respond after a commuter train derailed when a retaining wall collapsed onto the tracks in Gelida, near Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Mateu Parra)
View of the site of a train collision in Adamuz, southern Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
View of the site of a train collision in Adamuz, southern Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Spain's King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia visit the site of a train collision in Adamuz, southern Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (Joaquin Corchero/Europa Press via AP) **SPAIN OUT**
Guardia Civil officers collect evidence next to the wreckage of train cars involved in a collision in Adamuz, southern Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Guardia Civil officers collect evidence next to the wreckage of train cars involved in a collision in Adamuz, southern Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Guardia Civil officers collect evidence next to the wreckage of train cars involved in a collision in Adamuz, southern Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
In this grab taken from video provided by Guardia Civil, rescue workers at the scene following a high-speed train collision, in Adamuz, Spain, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (Guardia Civil via AP)
An injured person is transported to the makeshift hospital in the sports center in Adamuz, near Córdoba, southern Spain, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, after a high-speed train derailed and collided with another train. (Francisco J. Olmo/Europa Press via AP)
In this grab taken from video provided by Guardia Civil, rescue workers at the scene after a high speed train collision,in Adamuz, Spain, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (Guardia Civil via AP)
Emergency crews work at the site of a train collision in Adamuz, southern Spain, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Part of a wrecked train is photographed at the site of a train collision in Adamuz, southern Spain, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
