Pilgrimage turns tragic in Spain
More than 70 passengers are believed dead in Spain’s worst rail disaster in 40 years.
More than 140 others were injured when a train derailed in the Galicia region in the country’s northwest, just outside Santiago de Compestela, a city popular with religious tourists.
All eight carriages of the train, which was en route from Madrid to Ferrol, came off the tracks, and some caught fire.
The crash happened a day before the city’s main festival paying tribute to the remains of St. James, one of Jesus’ 12 disciples. Thousands of pilgrims travel in to pack the streets.
The apostle’s shrine in the city is the destination of the famous El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, followed by Christians since the Middle Ages.
A passenger told rescuers that the train, with 218 passengers on board, came off the tracks on a bend and carriages rolled over, crushing passengers.
Leader of the regional government Alberto Nunez told a local radio station that it was too early to say what caused the crash but authorities are working on the theory that it was an accident.
Early reports suggest the train was traveling at more than twice the speed limit.
Nunez described the trackside scene as "Dante-esque."
About 320 members of Spain’s national police force have been deployed in response to the train derailment, officials say.
The Galicia crash was one of the worst rail accidents in Europe in 25 years. It comes less than two weeks after six people died when a train came off the tracks and hit the platform at a station in central France.
By Linsey McNeill
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