Members of the Spanish Civil Guard and ADIF stand near the wreckage of a train involved in the accident, at the site of a deadly derailment of two high-speed trains near Adamuz, in Cordoba, Spain, January 20, 2026. REUTERS/Susana Vera
ADAMUZ, Spain, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Spanish rescuers used cranes and heavy machinery on Tuesday to gain access to the worst-hit carriages in one of Europe's deadliest train crashes as they sought to recover the remains of people still missing in a disaster that left at least 41 dead.
Spaniards are reeling following the first-ever deadly accident on the country's extensive high-speed rail network, which occurred on Sunday evening near Adamuz in Cordoba province, about 360 km (223 miles) south of Madrid. Experts say a faulty rail joint might be key to determining the cause of the derailment that led to the collision between two trains.
Emergency services used heavy machinery overnight and in the early hours of Tuesday to level the ground around the front carriages of the train belonging to the state-run Alvia service, which had plunged down a 4-metre (13.1 ft) embankment after the crash, and the rear carriages of the train operated by private consortium Iryo, the Andalusian regional government said in a statement.
Two cranes had been added to the rescue operation, the government said.
Another body was found overnight within the wreck of the Iryo train, which had derailed and caused the crash, elevating the death toll to 41, authorities said on Tuesday.
BODIES STILL TRAPPED IN THE WRECKAGE
At least three bodies have been seen still trapped inside the wreckage, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told state broadcaster TVE late on Monday.
He said that police had received 43 missing-person reports, which broadly matched the provisional death toll, but cautioned that the final number would not be confirmed until rescue teams had lifted the worst-affected carriages to see what was underneath.
The collision occurred in rolling, olive-growing countryside in the foothills of a mountain range. The site is only reachable by a single-track road, making it difficult for rescuers to access it with heavy machinery.
King Felipe and Queen Letizia were set to visit the site along with Deputy Prime Minister Maria Jesus Montero later on Tuesday, the government's public agenda showed.
Survivors' accounts of tragedy and fortune were beginning to emerge on Tuesday.
Lola Beltran told TVE she had changed carriages minutes before the crash, moving from her assigned seat in one of the hardest-hit cars to another carriage to sit with a colleague.
"We had to break the windows with emergency hammers and pry open the doors to get out," Beltran said, describing scenes of chaos, screams, and torn-out seats.
BROKEN RAIL: CAUSE OR CONSEQUENCE?
Transport Minister Oscar Puente urged patience as investigators carried out their work. He said that all hypotheses were open but it was "very strange" for the rear of a train that was not exceeding the speed limit to derail on a straight stretch.
The discovery of a broken rail was "one more piece of data" and did not, by itself, prove any single scenario, Puente said. The key question was whether it was the cause or the consequence of the derailment, he said.
A photo circulated by Spanish police showing a broken rail with the marker "1" beside it strongly suggested the fracture occurred at, or very near, the initial point of the derailment, Scottish railway engineer and author Gareth Dennis told Reuters.
He said the track just before the break looked intact, making it the likely trigger for the train leaving the tracks.
Dennis also said the fracture appeared close to a rail weld, where steel beside the weld can be a weak spot. Cold weather can raise tensile stress as rails contract, he said.
"The interesting question is why did the rail break," Dennis said, rather than why the train derailed.
(Writing by David Latona; Editing by Charlie Devereux and Tomasz Janowski)
