At least 78 dead in Spanish train crash

A train hurtled off the tracks in northwestern Spain on Wednesday, July 24, killing at least 78 passengers and injuring more than 100 as carriages crumpled into each other in a smoking wreckage of tangled steel. Disaster struck at 8:42 pm (1842 GMT) as the train carrying 218 passengers and 4 staff was about to enter Santiago de Compostela station in the northwestern region of Galicia. The accident happened on a stretch of high-speed track about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the main train station in Santiago de Compostela, the destination of the famous El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage which has been followed by Christians since the Middle Ages. The train was the Alvia model which is able to adapt between high-speed and normal tracks.

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