Second Train Crash in Days Claims One Life in Spain

A t least one person is dead after a train crash in Spain, two days after dozens were killed in an earlier collision. On Tuesday local time (Wednesday morning AEDT), according to railway operator ADIF, a retaining wall partially fell onto the tracks in Catalonia in the country's north-east. A Barcelona commuter train collided with the wreckage, with one person declared dead so far. Local emergency services said three people had been seriously injured, and that 15 had been hurt overall. It's believed the wall collapsed due to recent heavy rain in the region. The collision came two days after two high-speed trains collided in southern Spain, about 800km away from the new crash. The death toll in that has now risen to 42, with each train having carried hundreds of passengers. Antonio Sanz, the regional health minister of Andalusia, where the earlier accident occurred, told Spanish media that the official toll from the accident had risen after another corpse was discovered in a severely damaged car. Amid the tragedy, it emerged that a six-year-old girl survived the wreck without major injury, while her parents, brother and cousin all perished. Health authorities said 39 people remained in hospitals on Tuesday morning, while 83 people were treated and discharged. The crash happened at 7.45pm Sunday local time, 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 ADIF. 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 four-metre slope. Some bodies were found hundreds of metres from the crash site, according to Andalusia regional President Juanma Moreno. Associated Press images taken on 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. The investigation into the crash remains ongoing, with authorities stating "all hypotheses are open". – with Associated Press. DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on theApple App StoreandGoogle Play.