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One dead, 44 hurt as landslide derails train in Spain
BARCELONA, Nov 20, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – One person was killed and 44 others
were injured, three seriously, on Tuesday when a commuter train derailed near
Barcelona due to a landslide caused by heavy rains, emergency services and
Spain’s rail operator said.
Two carriages of a convoy of six came off the tracks at 6:15 am (0515 GMT)
near the town of Vacarisses, 35 kilometres (20 miles) northeast of Barcelona,
emergency services said on Twitter.
Of the 131 people on board, 41 were lightly injured, three were seriously
injured and one person died, it added.
Images broadcast on Spanish television showed rescue workers evacuating
passengers. Rocks piled up on the side of one carriage.
The train, which was travelling between Manresa and Barcelona, derailed
due to a landslide following several days of heavy rain in the region, train
operator Adif said in a statement.
The area was fitted with netting to hold back rocks “but it did not resist
the landslide,” Transport Minister Jose Luis Abalos told news radio Cadena
Ser. He said his ministry would investigate the cause of the accident.
Landslides had already caused trains to derail in the same area in 2009 and
2011, according to local press reports.
No one was injured in the derailment in 2009 but in 2011 the 11 people were
lightly hurt, according to the reports.
In 2013, 79 people died when a train travelling from Madrid to the
northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela came off the tracks. It was
Spain’s worst train wreck for decades.
BSS/AFP/RY/16:00 hrs