Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has extended Jamaica’s deepest and most heartfelt condolences to his Spanish counterpart, Pedro Sánchez and the people of Spain following the devastating train collision in Adamuz on Sunday.

With the death toll now reaching 41, Prime Minister Holness said the magnitude of this loss is a heavy burden that resonates far beyond Spain’s borders.

“Jamaica remembers with great clarity the profound support and friendship Spain has shown us during our own times of national trial, particularly as we recall the lives lost in Hurricane Melissa. We understand the silence that falls over a nation when so many are taken too soon,“ Dr Holness said in a post on his Facebook page. “To the families who have lost loved ones, and to the many who remain injured, Jamaica’s prayers are with you as you observe these days of national mourning. May the souls of the departed rest in peace.”

Spanish officials say they are still at a loss to understand what went wrong Sunday night when one high-speed train jumped the track and collided with another fast train going in the other direction.

Train crash details

Álvaro Fernández, the president of the public train company, Renfe, told Spanish public radio station RNE that both trains were travelling well under the speed limit and “human error could be ruled out”. Spain has woken to flags at half-staff this morning, as the nation began three days of mourning for the victims of the deadly train accident in the country’s south.

Officials have repeatedly warned that the death count may rise, with emergency workers still probing for bodies among what Andalusian regional president Juanma Moreno called “a twisted mass of metal”. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told Spanish national television, RTVE late Monday that searchers believe they have found three more bodies still trapped in the wreckage. It is not clear if those bodies are included in the official count.

The crash took place Sunday at 7:45 pm when the tail end of a train carrying 289 passengers on the route from Malaga to the capital, Madrid, went off the rails. It slammed into an incoming train travelling 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. That collision knocked its first two carriages off the track and sent them plummeting down a 4-meter (13-foot) slope. Some bodies were found hundreds of meters (feet) from the crash site, Moreno said.