Barcelona train crash: more than 50 injured as commuter service hits station buffer

More than 50 people were injured on Friday when a train crashed into the buffers at a Barcelona station, a collision that passengers said felt like “an earthquake”.

Eighten people were taken to hospital, one in a serious condition, after the accident at the Estacio de Franca in the centre of the city. Roads were closed around the station as emergency workers rushed to the scene, treating bleeding passengers on the platform.

The crash occurred at 7.15am when the regional commuter train failed to brake as it pulled into the station. Panic broke out aboard with some passengers at first fearing they had been hit by a terrorist attack.

“We did not know if it was a bomb or what had happened. People started to scream and were very scared,” Lidia Garcia, who was traveling in the first carriage, told reporters at the scene.

The driver was in a state of shock, said Josep Rull, the Catalan health secretary. He said the seriously injured victim had suffered a pulmonary contusion, but was “out of danger”. 

He said the train was slowing down as it pulled into the station, a fact which had prevented a "truly grave" accident. 

"The problem has been that the train has not been able to break completely to avoid contact," Mr Rull added.

Witnesses said the train was slowing down as it pulled into the station. Yet the impact was strong enough to force the buffer into the nose of the train and crumple the first carriage, leaving large cracks visible in the body.

Some passengers had already got up from their seats when the crash occurred, said Ms Garcia, who escaped with only grazes. “Many fell to the floor, because there were already people on their feet on the train, and I saw several people with cuts to the head and to the face,” she said. 

The causes of the accident are as yet unknown; authorities said an investigation would be launched.

Íñigo de la Serna, the Spanish minister for development, said that the train had passed all its safety checks, the most recent on July 18. The driver, a 31 year-old, had been operating trains in Catalonia for seven years, he said.

Railway operators Adif had found no indication the train had been travelling at too high a speed, he added.

There may be questions over the state of the station itself; the listed building has been eyed for closure since 1969 and the previous mayor had planned to shutter it in 2015.

Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister, telephoned Carlos Puigdemont, the Catalan president, to offer his support following the crash. It was a rare moment of unity between the two men, who have been locked in an escalating battle over Catalonia’s bid for independence.