The final death toll from Spain’s high-speed train collision is 45, with two more bodies found in the wreckage, raising national safety concerns.
MADRID: Spanish investigators have confirmed the final death toll from last weekend’s catastrophic high-speed train collision is 45.
The official CID data body confirmed the figure on Thursday evening after two more bodies were recovered from the wreckage.
An emergency services spokesman said the bodies were found in the severely damaged carriages of a state-run Renfe train.
That train had smashed into a derailed private Iryo service that had crossed onto its track in the Andalusia region.
The collision also injured over 120 people, marking Spain’s deadliest rail accident in over a decade.
The nation observed three days of national mourning following Sunday’s disaster.
Investigative unit head Fernando Dominguez said rescuers conducted a thorough search of two “severely deteriorated” carriages to find the last victims.
Of the 45 killed, 42 were Spanish nationals and three were women from Morocco, Russia and Germany.
Transport Minister Oscar Puente has called the crash on a recently renovated, straight stretch of track “extremely strange”.
The disaster has sparked major safety concerns across Spain’s extensive rail network.
It was followed days later by a separate fatal accident near Barcelona, where a commuter train hit a fallen wall.
That incident, blamed on heavy rainfall, killed one driver and injured 37 people.
It prompted the full suspension of Catalonia’s main Rodalies commuter network for safety checks.
Services remained suspended on Thursday as only six of 140 drivers reported for work amid safety fears.
Train drivers’ union Semaf has denounced repeated safety failings and called a national strike for February 9 to 11.
Union secretary general Diego Martin Fernandez said drivers need guarantees that infrastructure is safe.
“We need guarantees,” he told RAC 1 radio, criticising fresh landslips on the lines.
Minister Puente vowed to negotiate to cancel the strike, insisting the two tragedies were unrelated.
A third incident occurred on Thursday when a commuter train in Murcia hit a crane truck, causing six minor injuries.
The truck was working on cables next to the track in the municipality of Alumbres, officials said.
