By Guillermo Martinez and Michael Francis Gore
URDA, Spain, Oct 29 (Reuters) – Rescuers searched desperately through wrecked carriages on Thursday in the hope of finding more survivors of Spain’s second deadly high-speed train crash this year, which has so far claimed 68 lives.
Emergency workers were seen carrying what appeared to be a body wrapped in a blanket from one of the trains in a rural area in the central province of Toledo as cranes worked through the night to lift parts of the wreckage of Wednesday’s crash.
“Rescue teams are still working very carefully, because we still cannot say with certainty that there are no more victims trapped in the twisted wreckage,” Esther Padilla, a spokeswoman for the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha, told TVE.
“A canine unit was deployed yesterday. They will go back in today to make sure that nobody else remains there,” she added.
Meanwhile, train drivers in Spain went ahead with a previously planned strike to press for more investment in railway safety after what is Europe’s deadliest train accident since a 2013 derailment in Spain’s Santiago de Compostela.
The crash, which followed another fatal accident in January involving the same rail companies on the same line, has also upended campaigning for a November 29 snap election, with the leaders of Spain’s two main parties suspending campaign events.
Spain’s government has declared three days of national mourning for those killed when one high-speed train hit another.
POLITICAL LEADERS TRAVEL TO CRASH AREA
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was due to travel to Toledo on Thursday morning to take part in a meeting to monitor and coordinate the emergency response.
Meanwhile, Alberto Nuñez Feijoo, leader of the centre-right People’s Party (PP), which is currently leading in polls, was due to travel to the town of Urda near the crash site.
The crash has reopened a debate about safety on Spain’s railways, Europe’s longest and until recently a source of pride in the country.
Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente said on Wednesday the crash happened after several trains stopped automatically due to a signal failure. A state-run Renfe train was then authorised to proceed at normal speed even though there was a stationary Iryo-operated train ahead.
SEMAF, the Spanish train drivers’ union, said it did not want to speculate on the cause of the crash.
“We wish to exercise caution until we have a detailed understanding of exactly what happened, so as not to engage in speculation,” SEMAF said in a statement late on Wednesday.
Train drivers would go ahead with the strike that had already been planned before the accident to press for structural changes in railway safety, SEMAF said, adding that it was studying further action.
(Reporting by Charlie Devereux, Corina Pons and Mireia Merino; Editing by Alexander Smith)
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