Members of the Spanish Civil Guard, along with other emergency personnel, work next to one of the trains involved in a deadly derailment of two high-speed trains near Adamuz, in Cordoba, Spain, on Jan 19, 2026. Susana Vera / REUTERS

Spanish police said Monday that at least 39 people are confirmed dead in a high-speed train collision the previous night in the south of the country, as efforts to recover the bodies continue with authorities expecting the death toll to rise.

Some passengers were catapulted through windows and their bodies were found hundreds of meters from the crash site, Andalusia regional president Juanma Moreno said.

The crash occurred Sunday at 7:45 p.m. when the tail end of a train carrying some 300 passengers on the route from Malaga to the capital, Madrid, went off the rails. It slammed into an incoming train traveling from Madrid to Huelva, another southern Spanish city, according to rail operator Adif.

The head of the second train, which was carrying nearly 200 passengers, took the brunt of the impact, Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente said. That collision knocked its first two carriages off the track and sent them plummeting down a 13-foot slope. Puente said it appeared the largest number of the deaths occurred in those carriages.

Moreno said Monday morning that emergency services were still searching what he described as a mass of twisted metal where the smashed carriages had derailed.

"It is likely (that there will be more dead people found) when you look at the mass of metal that is there. The firefighters have done a great job, but unfortunately when they get the heavy machinery to lift the carriages it is probable we will find more victims."

"Here at ground zero, when you look at this mass of twisted iron, you see the violence of the impact."

Video and photos showed twisted train cars lying on their sides under floodlights. Passengers reported climbing out of smashed windows, with some using emergency hammers to break the windows, according to Salvador Jiménez, a journalist for Spanish broadcaster RTVE, who was on board one of the derailed trains.

He told the network by phone Sunday that "there was a moment when it felt like an earthquake and the train had indeed derailed."

Spanish police said 159 people were injured, of whom five were in critical condition. A further 24 were in serious condition, authorities said.

The collision took place near Adamuz, a town in the province of Cordoba, about about 230 miles south of Madrid.

In Adamuz, a sports center was turned into a makeshift hospital and the Spanish Red Cross set up a help center offering assistance to emergency services and people seeking information. Members of Spain's civil guard and civil defense worked on site throughout the night.

Puente said early Monday that the cause of the crash was unknown.

He called it "a truly strange" incident because it happened on a flat stretch of track that had been renovated in May. He also said the train that jumped the track was less than 4 years old. That train belonged to the private company Iryo while the second train, which took the brunt of the impact, was part of Spain's public train company Renfe.

When asked by reporters how long an inquiry into the crash's cause could take, he said it could be a month.

Spain has the largest high-speed rail network in Europe for trains moving over 155 mph, with more than 1,900 miles of track, according to the European Union.

The network is a popular, competitively priced and safe mode of transport. Renfe said more than 25 million passengers took one of its high-speed trains in 2024.

Train services between Madrid and cities in Andalusia were canceled for Monday.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain said Sunday they were "following with great concern the serious accident between two high-speed trains in Adamuz."

"We extend our most heartfelt condolences to the relatives and loved ones of the dead, as well as our love and wishes for a swift recovery to the injured," the royal palace said on X.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a post on X that she was following "the terrible news" from Cordoba.

"Tonight you are in my thoughts," she wrote in Spanish.

Spain's worst train accident this century occurred in 2013 when 80 people died after a train derailed in the country's northwest. An investigation concluded the train was traveling 111 mph on a stretch with a 50 mph speed limit when it left the tracks.

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