Six-year-old girl is only member of family to survive Spanish rail disaster

Original article by Sam Jones in Madrid and agency

A six-year-old girl who had travelled to Madrid to see a musical was the only member of her family to survive Sunday’s rail disaster in southern Spain, which killed 42 people, among them her parents, her brother and her cousin.

The girl, who has not been named, was found walking along the tracks after two trains collided near the town of Adamuz in the Córdoba province of Andalucía. She had emerged from the accident with only a minor head wound.

According the Spanish media, the child and her family had been on their way home to Aljaraque, on the Atlantic coast near Huelva, after travelling to the capital to see the Lion King musical and to visit the Bernabéu stadium in Madrid.

The outing had been a treat to celebrate the Christian feast of the Epiphany, which is when Spanish children traditionally receive their Christmas presents.

José Carlos Hernández Cansino, the mayor of the nearby town of Punta Umbría, told the broadcaster Canal Sur: “We’d been hoping that we wouldn’t have to declare any days of mourning or to lower the flag to half mast. But then we got the call telling us that four members of the same family who were missing had been found dead, confirming our worst fears.” He said the girl’s survival was “a miracle”.

Adrián Cano, the mayor of Aljaraque, said the town was “broken with grief and almost without words of comfort”.

The girl was cared for overnight by a police officer before being reunited with her grandmother in Córdoba, authorities said.

As work continued to recover the remaining bodies of those who died in Spain’s worst rail crash in more than a decade, other families shared stories of what had happened to their loved ones.

Alberto García told the Antena 3 TV channel that one of his daughters, who is five months pregnant, was in intensive care because of serious injuries she sustained in the crash. He said doctors had placed her under sedation and on a ventilator and were monitoring the baby’s heartbeat.

Relatives told El País that firefighters had pulled the woman unconscious from the wreck of the carriage after passengers smashed windows to escape from the train. Her sister, Ana, who was travelling with her and their dog, had lighter injuries. Relatives say the dog, named Boro, is still missing.

Ana said she believed her sister may have been injured while trying to protect the animal. “If I can’t do anything for her, at least I hope I can find Boro,” she told El Mundo.

Spain began three days of national mourning on Monday to honour the dead. The high-speed train was travelling from Málaga to Madrid when it derailed near Adamuz, crossing on to another track where it hit an oncoming train travelling from Madrid to Huelva.

Reuters contributed to this report