Horrors of Spain train crash emerge - 'I saw a man walking with a severed arm'

Horrors of Spain train crash emerge - 'I saw a man walking with a severed arm' Two trains ploughed into each other on the high-speed line between Madrid and Andalusia causing carriages to leave the tracks and roll down an embankment Surviving passengers on two trains that crashed today in Spain, leaving at least 68 dead, have told of the horrific scenes that unfolded after the collision - with one saying they saw a man walking with a severed arm. The devastating crash took place between a high-speed train and a stationary train this morning in Urda, Toledo, and has left another 107 in hospital. Jesús Jerónimo, 54, was on the train, working on his laptop before "there was a very strong surge forward" and he crashed into the seat in front of him, El Pais reports. At first, he and other passengers thought the train had derailed, finding it "tilted" when they got out of the wreckage. Mr Jerónimo described seeing "many injured and dead". He said: "It was an absolute emergency. I saw a young man walking with an arm, and I saw bodies lying on the ground that, when touched, felt like corpses." Describing the moment of the crash, the 54-year-old told radio station Cadena Ser: "We realised it was an accident and tried to evacuate as quickly as possible because the carriage had overturned onto the tracks and there was a risk that it might fall further." Carriages plunged down an embankment following the impact, with emergency services swarming the scene. The "apocalyptic" site has been described by a police officer from the Civil Guard who was on the train as a "twisted mass of metal" which looked "as if a bomb had gone off". Another passenger, Eduarda, described the harrowing scenes to the radio station Cadena Ser: "I was sitting there calmly, with my two little cats beside me, when there was a sudden, violent jolt, and I was thrown forward in my seat. People began to get out; there were people crying, and you could see bodies under the trains. "So many people were trapped and couldn't get out; there was screaming... It was a nightmare." Sebastián Herrero, a 46-year-old from Seville, was traveling on the Iryo train that was involved in the crash. He was near the front of the train and said the rear three carriages had been destroyed in the crash. "There are three Iryo carriages - the three at the rear - from which they keep pulling people out and covering them with sheets. Bodies. It’s apocalyptic," he told El Mundo. "It’s hard to imagine anyone is still alive in those three carriages. It’s just a twisted mass of metal. It’s as if a bomb had gone off." "Of the nine carriages, those from one through four or five are all derailed. Five of the high-speed carriages ended up exactly where the Iryo carriages should have been," Mr Herrero added. Spain's transport minister, Oscar Puente, said that the accident was caused by what he called the "inexplicable" order from a central command centre for Spain's trains after a security system failed. He said the train engineers were not to blame. The security system on a 39-mile stretch of the network stopped working at 8.30am due to a computer malfunction, with all trains coming to a halt on that stretch as a result. The central command, however, told the Renfe train travelling from Madrid to Seville to start going again with no speed restrictions. This then resulted in the collision. Another passenger, who wished not to be named, said: "I don't want to remember anything because it was a traumatic experience. I feel like I was born again." Mónica García, Spanish health minister, said the number of injured patients currently stands at 80. The patients were taken to hospitals in Toledo, Albacete, Ciudad Real and Alcázar de San Juan. Three of them were taken to hospital in the capital of Madrid. Fifteen people are seriously injured, with Ms García saying she is waiting to hear on their evolution. A three-day period of moruning started this afternoon and will be in place until Saturday, with EU institutions to fly their flags at half-mast throughout the period. This is the second railway disaster on the Madrid-Seville high-speed rail line this year, as another one occurred on January 18. Then, a high-speed passenger train derailed in the province of Cordoba, with a second train crashing into it and derailing as well. A total of 46 were killed, including the Renfe train driver, and nearly 300 were injured.