00:00At least 21 people have been killed and dozens more injured after two high-speed trains collided in southern Spain.
00:08One of the trains derailed and landed on an adjacent track.
00:12It was then hit by an oncoming train, which also derailed.
00:16The accident took place in the southern town of Aramus, near Córdoba.
00:21Emergency workers are at the scene to rescue passengers trapped in the carriages.
00:25The operators say the two trains were carrying around 500 people.
00:30Spain's transport minister says they don't know yet what caused the accident.
00:36Our correspondent Nicole Rees in Madrid told me more about this accident.
00:43Well, I think it's fair to say that the country is heading into a state of national shock.
00:50These past hours have been very intense over here.
00:53We know that on the ground the military units of Spain are working to get victims and affected out of the carriages.
01:05This is a difficult task, as we hear from media here who are reporting that some of the carriages are really badly bent due to the impact.
01:14That also means that it's difficult to reach victims.
01:17The carriages are also narrow, of course, so it's a difficult task at the moment.
01:22By the hour, the number of deaths is unfortunately also rising.
01:26And we also don't know yet at what speed this train went.
01:29They have the capacity of going at least a maximum speed of 300 kilometers the hour.
01:35So these are high-speed trains.
01:38The impact could be really, really bad.
01:41And the country is really in a state of shock because this is a reminder of an incident in 2013 where 80 people died in a train crash as well on a high-speed train.
01:51As I said, the number of deaths is going up by the hour.
01:53So it's pretty difficult right now to see how far this will go.
01:58And, Nicole, how did this happen?
02:03Well, basically what we know is that two trains derailed.
02:07One was going from Malaga to Madrid.
02:10This is supposedly the first train that derailed.
02:12It's especially the back of the train and its carriages that got off the tracks and then crashed into the opposite track with the train on the other side, coming from the other side.
02:23We don't know if this is due to a technical issue or due to a failure of maintenance.
02:28In the upcoming days, obviously authorities will be analyzing what happened on the scene as well as technicians to clarify how this accident could happen.
02:38In the meantime, families and others are looking for loved ones.
02:42They're reaching out on social media and also dialing up on the hotlines that are there in case they're missing someone.
02:48They're trying to know if their people who were on these trains are okay.
02:52We're also hearing some testimonies of people who got off the train, who are fine, who say that they noticed that the train started shaking really badly before the crash, but they got out at least.
03:03So at the moment, it's all hands on deck here.
03:05How safe is Spain's railway network?
03:11Well, Spain's railway network is considered very safe.
03:16People use these trains every day at every hour.
03:19There's a really tightly knit network.
03:21But as I mentioned earlier, obviously, this is a really cruel reminder of this really bad train crash in 2013 in the north of the country.
03:2980 people died.
03:30This was due to the driver who went at not permitted speed.
03:35He headed into a curve and this made the train derail as well and caused such a bad accident.
03:41But usually the trains here are quite safe to use.
03:44DW's Nicole Reese in Madrid.
03:46Thanks, Nicole.
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