A high-speed train derailed and smashed into another oncoming train in southern Spain on Sunday, pushing the second train off the tracks in a collision that police sources confirmed to Reuters had killed at least 21 people.

The accident happened near Adamuz, in Cordoba province. So far, 21 people have been confirmed dead by police, with state broadcaster Television Espanola adding that 100 people had been injured, 25 seriously.

The driver of one of the trains, which was travelling from Madrid to Huelva, was among those who died, the TV station added.

“The Iryo 6189 Malaga – (to Madrid) train has derailed from the track at Adamuz, crashing onto the adjacent track. The (Madrid) to Huelva train which was travelling on the adjacent track has also derailed,” said Adif, which runs the rail network, in a social media post.

Adif said the accident happened at 6:40pm (1740 GMT), about 10 minutes after the Iryo train left Cordoba heading towards Madrid.

Iryo is a private rail operator, majority-owned by Italian state-controlled railway group Ferrovie dello Stato. The train involved was a Freccia 1000 train which was travelling between Malaga and Madrid, a spokesperson for Ferrovie dello Stato said.

The company said in a statement that it deeply regretted what had happened and had activated all emergency protocols to work closely with the relevant authorities to manage the situation.

The second train was operated by Renfe, which also did not respond to a request for comment.

Adif has suspended all rail services between Madrid and Andalusia.

Horrific scene

The Iryo train had more than 300 passengers on board, while the Renfe train had around 100.

Paco Carmona, Cordoba fire chief, told TVE the first train heading to Madrid from Malaga had been evacuated.

The other train’s carriages were badly damaged, he said, with twisted metal and seats. “There are still people trapped. We don’t know how many people have died and the operation is concentrating on getting people out of areas which are very narrow,” he said. “We have to remove the bodies to reach anyone who is still alive. It is proving to be a complicated task.”

Transport Minister Oscar Puente said he was following events from rail operator Adif’s headquarters in Madrid.

“The latest information is very serious,” he posted on X. “The impact was terrible, causing the first two carriages of the Renfe train to be thrown off the track. The number of victims cannot be confirmed at this time. The most important thing now is to help the victims.”

The mayor of Adamuz, Rafael Moreno, told El Pais newspaper that he had been among the first to arrive at the scene of the accident alongside the local police and saw what he believed to be a badly lacerated body several metres from the accident site.

“The scene is horrific,” he said. “I don’t think they were on the same track, but it’s not clear. Now the mayors and residents of the area are focused on helping the passengers.”

Calls for medics

Images on local television showed a reception centre set up for passengers in the town of Adamuz, population 5,000, with locals coming and going with food and blankets amid nighttime temperatures of around 42 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius).

A woman named Carmen posted on X that she had been on board the Iryo train to Madrid. “Ten minutes after departing (from Cordoba) the train started to shake a lot, and it derailed from coach 6 behind us. The lights went out.”

Footage posted by another Iryo train passenger, also on X, showed an Iryo staffer in a fluorescent jacket instructing passengers to remain in their seats in the darkened carriages, and those with first aid training to keep watch over fellow passengers. He also urged people to maintain mobile phone batteries to be able to use their torches when they disembarked.

Salvador Jimenez, a journalist for RTVE who was on board the Iryo train, shared images showing the nose of the rear carriage of the train lying on its side, with evacuated passengers sitting on the side of the carriage facing upwards.

Jimenez told TVE by phone from beside the stricken trains that passengers had used emergency hammers to smash the windows and climb out, and they had seen two people taken out of the overturned carriages on stretchers.

“There’s a certain uncertainty about when we’ll get to Madrid, where we’ll spend the night, we’ve had no message from the train company yet,” he said. “It’s very cold but here we are.”

• US President Donald Trump calls for new leadership in Iran.
• Limited internet access returns after 10-day blackout.
• Iran orders swift trials, warns protesters face capital charges.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned on Sunday that any attack on the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would mean a declaration of war.

“An attack on the great leader of our country is tantamount to a full-scale war with the Iranian nation,” Pezeshkian said in a post on X in an apparent response to US President Donald Trump saying it was time to look for a new leader in Iran.

Limited internet access has returned in Iran, a monitor said Sunday, 10 days after authorities imposed a communications blackout amid violent protests.

Demonstrations sparked in late December by anger over economic hardship exploded into protests widely seen as the biggest challenge to the Iranian leadership in years.

The rallies subsided after the crackdown amid a communications blackout that started on January 8 as the protests grew in size and intensity.

Iranian officials have said the demonstrations were peaceful before turning into “riots” and blamed foreign influence from Iran’s arch-foes the United States and Israel.

Trump, who backed and joined Israel’s 12-day war against Iran in June, had repeatedly threatened new military action against Tehran if protesters were killed.

While Washington appeared to have stepped back, Trump hit out at the Iranian supreme leader — in power for 37 years — in an interview with Politico on Saturday, saying it was “time to look for new leadership in Iran”.

As leaders in Washington and Tehran have exchanged barbs, Iranian officials have said calm has been restored in the streets.

Security forces with armoured vehicles and motorcycles were seen in central Tehran, according to AFP correspondents.

One new banner in central Tehran showed a set of dominoes with images including the former shah of Iran, ousted Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein and Trump with the caption, “dominoes falling”.

Schools reopened on Sunday — Iran’s weekend falling on Thursday and Friday — after a week of closure and authorities said “internet access would also be gradually restored”, Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday.

‘Not be spared’

On Saturday, Khamenei said “a few thousand” people had been killed by what he called “agents” of the United States and Israel, and Iranian local media has reported multiple deaths among security forces.

Khamenei said authorities “must break the back of the seditionists”, as local media have reported thousands of arrests.

On Sunday, Iran’s judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir reiterated that swift trials would be held, warning that some acts warranted the capital offence of “moharebeh”, or “waging war against God”.

“All those who played a decisive role in these calls for violence, which led to bloodshed and significant damage to public finances, will not be spared,” he said.

Alarm has grown over the threat of capital punishment against arrested protesters, even as Trump said Iran had called off hundreds of executions.

Tajikistan officials on Sunday said they “neutralised” four “terrorists” who crossed over from neighbouring Afghanistan in an area where deadly incidents have been on the rise in recent weeks, state media reported.

Tajikistan, in Central Asia, shares a mountainous border with Afghanistan and has had tense relations with the Afghan Taliban regime.

According to Tajik security services cited by the state-owned Khovar news agency, “four terrorists were neutralised” after they refused to put down arms in the southern Khatlon region.

Tajik authorities have reported at least five deadly incidents on the mountainous border, which is some 1,350 kilometres (840 miles) long, since November.

An AFP count using official data found that 16 people have been killed in total.

These include Tajik border guards, Chinese workers and what Dushanbe calls “smugglers” and “terrorists”.

After attacks on Chinese nationals in November, Tajik authorities urged the Afghan Taliban regime to take measures to prevent destabilisation of the volatile border region, where drug traffickers and militant groups are active.

Unlike other Central Asian leaders who are strengthening ties with the Taliban, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon — in power since 1992 — openly criticises Afghanistan’s authorities.

He has urged the Taliban to respect the rights of ethnic Tajiks, estimated to represent around a quarter of Afghanistan´s population.

But Tajikistan is also taking steps towards cooperation with Kabul, through electricity supplies, the opening of border markets and meetings between Taliban and local Tajik officials.

Relations between the two nations took a hit after five Chinese nationals were killed, and several were wounded in two separate attacks along Tajikistan’s border with Afghanistan in late November and early December.

According to a UN report in December, a militant group, Jamaat Ansarullah, “has fighters spread across different regions of Afghanistan” with a primary goal “to destabilise the situation in Tajikistan.”

Dushanbe has previously voiced concerns about the presence in Afghanistan of members of Daesh in Khorasan.