Woman Left Covered in Blood in Catastrophic Train Crash That Killed at Least 39 Others: ‘You Could See Them Dying’

As survivors of a catastrophic high-speed train crash in southern Spain speak out, one woman is recalling how she was pulled from her rail car covered in blood after she saw fellow passengers die.

“Some people were fine and others were really bad,” the unnamed survivor told Reuters in an emotional interview one day after a Madrid-bound train derailed and crashed into a train set for Huelva on Sunday, Jan. 18.

“And we had them in front of us and you could see them dying and you could do nothing,” the survivor said.

On Sunday, at 7:45 p.m. local time, a Iryo train heading to Madrid was approaching the Adamuz train station when its last two cars derailed, according to a preliminary report from the transportation ministry.

The derailed cars then crossed into the path of a Renfe Alvia train traveling in the opposite direction.

The impact caused the two front cars of the Renfe Alvia train to fall down a 13-foot embankment, leaving at least one train employee and 38 passengers dead, according to officials.

Twenty-nine others were seriously injured and 123 people suffered minor injuries, as the response operation continues.

In video footage shared by Reuters, the survivor is seen wearing a blanket and limping, with a person by her side, as she enters a building in Adamuz on Monday.

She told the outlet that she often travels by train but noted something was wrong when she started to “go up.”

“That’s where I looked at my sister,” the woman told Reuters in a translated interview. “I looked for her and it’s the last moment I remember before it all went dark.”

The survivor said she heard screams. When asked how she got out of the derailed train car, she told Reuters that other passengers broke the windows to get to her.

“[They] pulled me out because I was covered in blood,” the woman said.

Salvador Jiménez, a Spanish journalist, was traveling in the first car of the train that derailed.

The crash was “like an earthquake,” he told The New York Times.

Originally, Jiménez thought his train had hit an animal as the lights went out. But when he exited his car, he witnessed passengers breaking windows with emergency hammers so they could escape, the Times reported.

He saw the last train cars turned on their sides and people retrieving trapped passengers from windows that were facing upwards.

“Many people were shouting the names of passengers,” Jiménez told the Times. He and other survivors later walked to safety in the dark.

Other passengers described the initial chaos when speaking with the BBC. One man recalled people and belongings that went flying during the crash.

And a woman who survived told the BBC that the scene was “absolutely terrifying.”

Juanma Moreno, the president of the Andalusian regional government, said on Monday that the “tragedy is going to be much greater” once the scene is assessed, local outlet La Sexta reported.

“We have 39 confirmed deaths, but unfortunately, the number won’t stay there,” Moreno told Canal Sur Television. “Right now, we’re waiting for the heavy machinery, the crane, to be set up around 1 p.m. so they can lift carriages one, two, and three of the Alvia train, which was the one that suffered the most damage in this accident.”

He added, “Some people have already been identified and counted, but when they are lifted, we may find more deceased individuals underneath, beside, or among the wreckage.”

Authorities have yet to confirm what caused the collision, but an official previously said that the track had recently been updated in May 2025.

The Iryo-owned train was manufactured in 2022 and had passed its inspection on Jan. 15, 2025, according to La Razón. The other train was operated by the state-owned railway company, Renfe.

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PEOPLE has contacted both organizations for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Starting on Monday night, Spain will observe three days of mourning, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced, the Times reported.

“Spanish society is asking what happened, how it happened, and how this tragedy could have occurred,” Sánchez said.