Top News

A woman experienced a miraculous escape during the Spanish train crash when she went to the toilet, found it engaged and moved to another carriage. The woman's decision to walk from carriage eight to carriage five to find another toilet was one that fellow passengers said "saved her life".

Many people who were in the train's eighth carriage lost their lives, but it is understood that all of those who were in the fifth carriage survived. The story has been noted as a rare moment of joy in a tragedy that saw at least 39 people killed.

Investigators and officials are still attempting to understand what caused the crash, with Spain's transport minister Oscar Puente stating that it remains a mystery while calling the deadly crash a "truly strange" incident, as the tracks had been renovated just last year. Both trains were also travelling within the speed limit, reports The Mirror.

Argentinian passenger Lucas Merakio and his partner were both in carriage five of the Madrid-bound Iryo train that went off the track and crashed into another Renfe train travelling in the opposite direction, south to Huelva.

He said: "There was a woman who had tried to go to the toilet in carriage eight but couldn't because it was already occupied. She ended up going to the toilet in carriage five and that saved her life." He added: "It was like a horror movie."

In a detailed account of the incident, he told a Spanish TV station how he saw a ten-year-old girl desperately searching for her missing parents after the crash, and hearing foreigners who spoke only English, struggling to understand what had just happened.

Speaking on Spain's Telecinco station in a studio interview, he said: "There was a vibration and then another much stronger one and my girlfriend at that point grabbed hold of my hand. It all happened in a matter of seconds and we were very worried.

"The train began to jump and jump and then we felt what must have been carriage number eight derailing which was very violent and loud. That's when the other train passed by us and that was horrible.

"The lights went out in our carriage, the train began to shake and people started screaming.

"Our train braked sharply and came to a sudden halt" He went on: "I went towards carriage number six which had derailed and saw that underneath there were people saying: 'Water, water, water.'

"Everyone began to pass the water they had and along with another man we handed them the bottles." He added: "The other man was on crutches because of a leg problem but we did what we could until the police and ambulances arrived which must have been about 40 minutes.

"People were all very civilised and we headed towards Adamuz Station which was just a few feet away.

"Victims started appearing with broken bones and very deep cuts. It was horrible. There was a girl whose hand was badly cut. More and more people with injuries were arriving.

"The medics there were overwhelmed. And what we didn't know at that point was that carriage number eight of our train was overturned with dead people inside. There was a little girl aged ten who couldn't find her parents."