SPANISH police said today that at least 39 people were killed in a high-speed train collision the previous night in the south of the country, and rescue efforts were continuing.

Video and photos showed twisted train cars lying on their sides under floodlights. Passengers reported climbing out of smashed windows, with some using emergency hammers to break the windows, according to Salvador Jimenez, a journalist for Spanish broadcaster RTVE, who was on board one of the derailed trains.

He told the network by phone on Sunday that “there was a moment when it felt like an earthquake and the train had indeed derailed.”

The crash occurred when the tail end of a train carrying 300 passengers on the route from Malaga to the capital, Madrid, went off the rails at 7.45pm local time.

It slammed into an incoming train travelling from Madrid to Huelva, another southern Spanish city, according to rail operator Adif.

The collision took place near Adamuz, a town in the province of Cordoba, about 230 miles south of Madrid.

Spanish police said another 159 people were injured.

In Adamuz, a sports centre was turned into a makeshift hospital and the Spanish Red Cross set up a help centre offering assistance to emergency services and people seeking information.

Spain’s Transport Minister Oscar Puente said today that the cause of the crash was unknown.

He called it “a truly strange” incident because it happened on a flat stretch of track that had been renovated in May. He also said the train that jumped the track was less than four years old.

That train belonged to the private company Iryo, while the second train, which took the brunt of the impact, was part of Spain’s public train company, Renfe.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed his condolences to the victims’ families. “Tonight is a night of deep pain for our country,” he wrote on X.