A horrific high-speed train crash in Spain has resulted in at least 39 deaths and more than 100 others injured.

According to ABC News, a “train traveling from Málaga to Madrid on Sunday derailed near Adamuz, crossing over to the adjacent track where it hit another train coming from Madrid to Huelva.”

The crash happened about 7:45 p.m. local time.

ABC News shared further details:

Eighty-one of the injured have been discharged and 41 remain hospitalized, emergency officials said on Monday. Twelve of the hospitalized victims are in the intensive care unit, officials said.

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An unknown number of people remained unaccounted for on Monday as rescue crews continued to work at the scene, according to a Spanish official.

Regional President of Andalusia Juan Manuel Moreno said the crews were working through difficult conditions to try to reach the train carriages, where more victims could be inside.

About 400 people were on board both trains, officials said.

Oscar Puente, the Spanish transport minister, said in a statement early on Monday that the death toll was “not final.”

“I want to express all my gratitude for the huge effort of the rescue teams during the night, under very difficult circumstances, and my condolences to the victims and their families in these terribly painful moments,” he said in Spanish on social media.

“For those outside Spain watching the train crash in horror: everything so far points to a derailment caused by a rail failure, not by speed or weather. Spanish media report a broken rail weld, a classic infrastructure and maintenance issue,” journalist David Alandete commented.

“This matters in a country where the Transport Ministry has faced serious corruption scandals in recent years, including a former minister now in prison. The lesson is basic and brutal: neglected infrastructure and gross incompetence could have a big part in this,” he continued.

Reuters has more:

Technicians on site analysing the rails identified some wear on the joint between sections of the rail, known as a fishplate, which they said showed the fault had been there for some time, the source said.

They found that the faulty joint created a gap between the rail sections that widened as trains continued to travel on the track.

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The source, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the technicians believe the faulty joint is key to identifying the precise cause of the accident.

Spain’s Commission of Investigation of Rail Accidents (CIAF), which has been tasked with the overall investigation into the causes of the disaster, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Spanish rail operator, Adif, the Spanish transport ministry – which oversees the CIAF – also did not respond to requests for comment.

Álvaro Fernandez Heredia, president of Renfe, which operates the second train to derail, told the Cadena Ser radio station it was too early to talk about the cause. However, the accident happened in “strange conditions”, he said, adding that “human error is practically ruled out.”

The first carriages of the train operated by Spanish firm Iryo drove over the gap in the rails, but the eighth, and last, carriage derailed, bringing with it the seventh and sixth carriages, the person said.

Iryo is a private rail operator, majority-owned by Italian state-controlled railway group Ferrovie dello Stato.

The source pointed to a photograph showing the gap in the vertical rail, which also featured in a handout picture shared with media by Spain’s Guardia Civil. The area has been marked by police incident numbers as it is photographed by forensic inspectors.

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