12 killed as train hits beachgoers in Spain

[June 24, 2010]  CASTELLDEFELS, Spain (AP) -- A train speeding through a seaside rail station plowed into a group of youths taking a shortcut across the tracks to get to a beach party, killing at least 12, injuring 14 and turning a festive night meant to welcome the start of summer into one of carnage and tragedy, officials and witnesses said Thursday.

It was Spain's deadliest train accident since 2003, when 19 people died in a collision between passenger and freight trains in the southeastern town of Chinchilla.

The youths -- at least some of them described as Latin American immigrants -- got off a commuter train in the beach resort of Castelldefels outside Barcelona shortly before midnight Wednesday to head to the party. About 30 climbed down off the platform and tried to scurry across the tracks instead of using an underpass to leave the station, witnesses said.

Seconds later, a long-distance train that was not scheduled to stop at the station barreled into the youths at high speed, its whistle shrieking.

Marcelo Cardona, who was on the commuter train, said the many people aboard had been looking forward to dancing around a bonfire on the Mediterranean shore.

"The euphoria of getting off the train immediately became screams. There were people screaming, 'my daughter! my sister!'" said Cardona, a 34-year-old Bolivian. He said he saw "mutilated people, blood everywhere, blood on the platform."

Felipe Elmaji, a 29-year-old Moroccan who was traveling with Cardona, said he heard a "thump, thump of the train hitting people."

Cardona's sister Candy recalled the shrill, piercing sound of the train's whistle as it tried to warn people to get out of the way. "It was horrible. I can't get that sound out of my head," she said.

Marcelo Cardona said his party had waited on the platform to let a large crowd work its way through the underpass leading out of the station.

Mayor Joan Sau said, "If the underpass had been used, we would probably not be talking about this tragedy right now."

Sau said there is also a pedestrian walkway over the tracks but it was closed, having been replaced by the underpass when the station was remodeled late last year.

Except for a woman in her 40s, all of the dead and injured were under age 29, and two were teenagers, said Nacho Solano, a spokesman for the Catalonia regional government's civil protection department. He and emergency medical services chief Jose Maria Soto said some -- perhaps many -- of the victims were Latin American immigrants.

A civic center set up to receive relatives of accident victims is flooded with Latin Americans, and Latin American consulates including that of Mexico have called seeking information, Solano said.

Of the 14 injured, four have been treated and released and of those still hospitalized, two are in critical condition and another in extremely critical condition, Solano said.

Catalan regional Interior Minister Joan Saura said crews are trying to identify those who died. "It will not be easy and it will not be fast," he said at a press conference.

As an investigation got under way, the chairman of the state railway company RENFE, Teofilo Serrano, said he was "almost certain" the long-distance train was not exceeding the speed limit as it came through the station. He said he did not know how fast it was going.

The beach festival was part of a nationwide ritual always held around the time of the summer solstice. It is called Noche de San Juan, or night of St. John. It is celebrated in much of Spain but with particular zeal in Catalonia. People light bonfires in town squares and on beaches, dancing around them and even jumping over them, and set off fireworks.

"Last night, Noche de San Juan, which is normally a night of festivity in Catalonia, turned tragic," the Catalan regional president, Jose Montilla, said as he visited the accident scene.

He declared a day of mourning throughout the region. Flags flew at half-mast at town hall in Castelldefels. Crews hosed down the bloodied train tracks.

Enrique Sosa, a chef who works near the train station, said he rushed there after hearing about the accident and helped wash off a 16-year-old boy who was covered in other people's blood.

"He was shaking," said Sosa, a 37-year-old Uruguayan.

Sosa said he then lent the boy his cell phone so he could call home.

[Associated Press; By JOSEPH WILSON]

Associated Press writer Daniel Woolls contributed to this report from Madrid.

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