High-speed trains collide after one derails in southern Spain, killing at least 20
Madrid (AP): A high-speed train derailed, jumped onto the track in the opposite direction and slammed into an oncoming train Sunday in southern Spain, killing at least 20 people and injuring dozens more, officials said.
The evening train between Malaga and Madrid went off the rails near Cordoba and slammed into a train coming from Madrid to Huelva, another southern Spanish city, according to rail operator Adif. The two trains were carrying around 500 passengers, according to media reports.
Antonio Sanz, regional health minister for the Andalusia region where the crash happened, said officials told him they fear the death toll may rise above 20.
Rescue operations are ongoing, he said, adding that 73 injured passengers have been taken to six different hospitals.
He said at least one passenger carriage had rolled down a four-metre slope.
Francisco Carmona, the firefighter chief of Cordoba, told Spanish national radio RNE that one of the trains was badly mangled, with at least four wagons off the rails.
The situation at the crash site “is very serious,” Sanz said. “We have a very difficult night ahead.”
The regional Civil Protection chief, Maria Belen Moya Rojas, told Canal Sur the accident happened in an area that is hard to reach.
Local people were taking blankets and water to the scene to help the victims, she said.
High-speed trains, running on an extensive national network, are a popular way to travel in Spain.
Spain's military emergency relief units joined the deployment of other rescue units. The Red Cross also provided support to healthcare officials.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a post on X that she was following “the terrible news” from Cordoba.
“Tonight you are in my thoughts,” she wrote in Spanish.
ADIF said train services between Madrid and cities in Andalucia would not run Monday.
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BJP has history of ‘contradictory alliances’, says BK Hariprasad
Bengaluru: Congress MLC B. K. Hariprasad has launched a sharp attack on the BJP, accusing the party of hypocrisy over its criticism of alliance politics in Tamil Nadu.
In a post on X on Friday, Hariprasad said BJP leader B. L. Santhosh criticising the Congress party’s alliance politics in Tamil Nadu was “not just laughable, but the height of political contradiction.”
He said the Congress has always joined hands with like-minded parties to protect secular and democratic values in the country.
Hariprasad questioned the BJP over several of its past and present alliances across the country. Referring to Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Tripura, Bihar and Maharashtra, he accused the BJP of sharing power with parties it had earlier criticised.
He alleged that the BJP had aligned with separatist and corruption-linked political forces in different states for political gains.
“The BJP, which speaks against alliances today, should first look at its own political history,” he said, adding that the party’s record was full of “contradictions and changing stands.”
Hariprasad also accused the BJP of using central agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax Department and CBI as political tools to target opposition leaders, topple governments and influence electoral mandates.
He further claimed that the people of Tamil Nadu had strongly rejected the BJP and its ideology in the recent election.
“Congress forms alliances to protect the Constitution, secularism and national unity, while the BJP enters into alliances only for power,” he said.
