Desperate rescue bid continues through the night after Spanish rail disaster killed at least 39: Emergency workers battle to free trapped victims after one train derailed and a second ploughed into the wreckage

 At least 39 people have been killed and dozens are seriously injured after two high-speed trains derailed in Spain's worst rail crash in more than a decade.



The crash happened in Adamuz, near the city of Córdoba, at around 6.40pm local time on Sunday when one train derailed and crossed over onto another track, with a second ploughing into the wreckage.

The trains - one travelling from Málaga to Madrid, the other from Madrid to Huelva and running on an adjacent line - both overturned as they travelled at high speed.

One of the deceased was the driver of the Huelva-bound train, according to Spanish media.

The full scale of the incident is not currently known, although the country's ministry of transport said 39 bodies had been removed from the scene on Monday.

Officials said 75 people were in hospital with injuries, five of whom had 'very serious injuries' and another 24 in a 'serious' condition, in the early hours of Monday morning. Local reports say there are at least 100 people injured.

Some 317 people were on the Madrid-bound train while 200 passengers were on the Huelva-bound train.

Rescue crews worked desperately through the night to save passengers who remained trapped in the hours after the collision. Horrifying footage showed rescue teams frantically working in pitch-black conditions to free those stuck.

'The problem is that the carriages are twisted, so the metal is twisted with the people inside,' Francisco Carmona, head of firefighters in Cordoba, told public broadcaster RTVE. 

Spain's transport minister Oscar Puente said the cause of the crash was unknown.

He called it 'a truly strange' incident because it happened on a flat stretch of track that had been renovated in May. He also said the train that jumped the track was less than four years old.

That train belonged to the private company Iryo, while the second train, which took the brunt of the impact, was part of Spain's public train company Renfe.

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