At least 39 dead in Spain train collision

At least 39 people have died in a train collision in southern Spain and dozens more have been injured in the country's worst rail crash in more than a decade, Spain's Civil Guard said.

Carriages on a Madrid-bound train derailed and crossed over to the opposite tracks, colliding with an oncoming train in Adamuz on Sunday evening.

Four hundred passengers and staff were onboard both trains, the rail networks said. Emergency services treated 122 people, with 48, including five children, still in hospital. Of those, 11 adults and one child are in intensive care.

Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente described the incident as "extremely strange" as officials launched an investigation.

All the railway experts consulted by the government "are extremely baffled by the accident", Puente told reporters in Madrid.

Rail network operator Adif said the collision happened at 7:45pm about an hour after the train left Málaga heading to Madrid, when it derailed on a straight stretch of track near the city of Córdoba.

The force of the crash pushed the carriages of the second train into an embankment, Puente said. He added that most of those killed and injured were in the front carriages of the second train, which was travelling from Madrid to Huelva.

The type of train involved in the crash was a Freccia 1000, which can reach top speeds of 400 kph, a spokesperson for the Italian rail company Ferrovie dello Stato said.

Rescue teams said the twisted wreckage of the trains made it difficult to recover people trapped inside the carriages.

Córdoba fire chief Francisco Carmona told Spanish public broadcaster RTVE: "We have even had to remove a dead person to be able to reach someone alive. It is hard, tricky work."