A commuter train accident occurred at around 7.15am on Friday morning at Barcelona's França Station, causing at least 50 injuries. Emergency services moved quickly to work at the scene and attend those injured.
It was a passenger train from the South R2 route that came from Sant Vicenç of Calders and hit the buffers at the end of platform 11 at Barcelona station. The crash derailed six carriages of the train. The cause of the accident is still unknown. First indications suggest that the train driver could not brake in time.
According to the Emergency Medical System (SEM) there are 54 people injured, of which one is serious (but not life-threatening), and who has been moved to the Hospital Clínic. There are 19 people with "less severe" injuries, and 34 with "minor injuries".
The SEM is transferring the injured to the hospitals in Barcelona of Vall d'Hebron, Sant Pau, the Mar Clinic, the Sacred Heart, and to the CUAPS of Pere Camps, St. Martí i Manso. SEM have activated 18 units.
A telephone number of RENFE has been made available to the relatives of the injured people in the accident: 900 10 10 20.
Barcelona's Town Council has activated its protocol of action for multiple victims.
Since the time of the accident, 11 teams of Barcelona firefighters, several patrols of the Urban Guard, and nine police patrols have been dispatched to the scene.
The president and advisers at the station
Just over an hour after the accident, the president of the Catalan government, Carles Puigdemont, together with several advisers, arrived at the França station.
The head of the Department of Territory and Sustainability, Josep Rull, and the head of the Department of Interior, Joquim Forn, also arrived at the station to supervise the work of the emergency teams and to hear first hand the reasons for the accident.
Rull highlighted the rapid intervention of the emergency teams and pointed out that the train had entered the station at low speed, and that the driver could not stop in time to avoid a collision with the buffers.
Toni Comin, Minister of Health, congratulated "the professionalism of the emergency services", and the rapid response and coordination between them that ensured the effectiveness of emergency management.
RENFE announced it will investigate the causes of the accident. The circulation of trains has not been affected, within the already minimum services running due to the strike summoned for this Friday.