Spain deploys heavy machinery to find missing bodies among train crash wreckage

Spain deploys heavy machinery to find missing bodies among train crash wreckage

By Nina Lopez and Michael Francis Gore

Tue, January 20, 2026 at 1:45 PM UTC

4 min read

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Maintenance workers from Adif work above 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

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

Emergency personnel work at the site of the trains involved in the accident, following a deadly derailment of two high-speed trains near Adamuz, in Cordoba, Spain, January 19, 2026. REUTERS/Ana Beltran

A drone view shows emergency services at work at the site of a deadly train derailment near Adamuz, in Cordoba province, Spain. January 18. REUTERS/Leonardo Benassatto

A general view inside the Malaga train station, following a deadly derailment of two high-speed trains near Adamuz, in Malaga, Spain, January 19, 2026. REUTERS/Jon Nazca

An information panel at Malaga train station displays the cancelled train journeys from Malaga to Madrid, following a deadly derailment of two high-speed trains near Adamuz, in Malaga, Spain, January 19, 2026. REUTERS/Jon Nazca

Two high-speed trains derail in Spain

Maintenance workers from Adif work above 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

By Nina Lopez and Michael Francis Gore

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 were added to the rescue operation, the government said.

The collision occurred in rolling, olive-growing countryside in the foothills of a mountain range in a site only reachable by a single-track road that made it difficult for rescuers to access it with heavy machinery.

Another body was found overnight within ⁠the wreck of the Iryo train, which had derailed and caused ‌the crash, raising the death toll to 41, authorities said on Tuesday.

BODIES STILL TRAPPED IN THE WRECKAGE

At least three bodies are still trapped in the wreckage, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told a press conference on Tuesday.

He said 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.

Some relatives continued to wait for news of their loved ones as authorities worked on identifying the dead.

Osiris Sevilla described her anxiety as she waited for news about her husband outside an emergency centre in Cordoba.

"Every second that goes by lasts a lifetime," she said, adding that she hadn't given up hope that he'd survived.

"He didn’t like trains... Since we got together, this is the first time he took a train," she said.

Spain's King Felipe and Queen Letizia ‌visited the site of the tragedy on Tuesday and spoke to residents, including 16-year-old Julio Rodriguez, who with his mother and a friend was one of the first to reach the scene of the accident.

He described the scene to El Mundo newspaper as "like a massacre... with dismembered bodies, limbs here and there".

Survivors also spoke of their ordeal.

Lola Beltran told TVE she had changed carriage 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 the investigation proceeds. He ⁠said 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 is 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.

Puente has said services on the line between Andalusia and Madrid should be restored by around February 2.

National carrier Iberia ‌said it would add extra daily flights from Madrid to Seville and Malaga and cap ticket prices at 99 euros ($116) to meet the additional demand.

($1 = 0.8516 ‌euros)

(Writing by David Latona and Charlie Devereux; Editing by Charlie Devereux, Tomasz Janowski and Gareth Jones)

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