Train derails in Spain, at least 60 dead, 140 injured

A train derailed outside the ancient northwestern Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela on Wednesday, killing at least 60 people and injuring up to 131 in one of Europe's worst rail disasters.

Bodies covered in blankets lay next to the overturned carriages as smoke billowed from the wreckage. Firefighters clambered over the twisted metal trying to get survivors out of the windows, while ambulances and fire engines surrounded the scene.

The government said it was working on the hypothesis the derailment was an accident - although the scene will stir memories of 2004's Madrid train bombing, carried out by Islamist extremists, that killed 191 people. Sabotage or attack was unlikely to be involved, an official source said.

The train operated by state rail company Renfe with 247 people on board derailed on the eve of the city's main festival in honor of Saint James when thousands of Christian pilgrims from all over the world pack the streets.

"It was going so quickly. ... It seems that on a curve the train started to twist, and the wagons piled up one on top of the other," passenger Ricardo Montesco told Cadena Ser radio station.

Rescuers work at the site of a train accident near the city of Santiago de Compostela on July 24, 2013. At least 35 people died and 200 people were injured when a train derailed in Galicia in northwestern Spain today, the president of the regional government of Galicia said. The train which carried 238 passengers originated in Madrid and was bound for the northwestern town of Ferrol.

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