(Vatican Radio) The death toll in a passenger train crash in north-western Spain rose
to 77 on Thursday after the train jumped the tracks on a curvy stretch just before
arriving in the north-western shrine city of Santiago de Compostela.
Seventy
three people were found dead at the scene of the accident and four died in hospitals,
said Maria Pardo Rios, spokeswoman for the Galicia region's main court. At least 141
people were injured after the eight-carriage train carrying 218 passengers derailed
about an hour before sunset Wednesday night.
It was Spain's deadliest train
accident since 1972, when a train collided with a bus in south-western Spain, killing
86 people and injuring 112. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was heading Thursday to the
scene of the crash. He was born in Santiago de Compostela, where officials cancelled
ceremonies for its annual religious festival that attracts tens of thousands of Christian
pilgrims from around the world.
Rescue workers spent the night searching through
toppled and smashed cars alongside the tracks at the crash site, and Pardo said it
was possible that the death toll could go higher.