Reuters
[Photo Credit: Reuters]
Rescuers picked through mangled carriages on Thursday in a search for victims of Spain’s second fatal high-speed train crash this year, with the death toll rising to 69 and the public demanding explanations for the latest accident.
Cranes had worked through the night to lift parts of the wreckage of Wednesday’s crash, while emergency workers removed what appeared to be a body wrapped in a blanket from one of the trains in the central Spanish province of Toledo.
Regional leader Emiliano Garcia-Page said the number of deaths had risen to 69 and that human remains had been found during rescue efforts, which now involved crane operations, particularly on a carriage that remained overturned.
Among those killed in Europe’s deadliest train accident since a derailment in Santiago de Compostela in 2013 was Fatima Banez, a former labour minister who chaired the social and corporate responsibility arm of Spain’s employers’ association.
Spain’s Foreign Ministry said 42 foreign citizens from seven countries were involved in the crash, information available so far showed, of whom one was killed and at least seven injured.
Authorities said 57 of those injured remained in hospital.
