Crowded Train Derails, Killing 22

A train loaded with families returning home from Easter holidays derailed Monday, killing at least 22 people and injuring 87.

As darkness fell, rescuers were trying to extricate trapped passengers from the five-car train, which derailed just before it entered the station in Huarte Arakil, a northern town 20 miles west of Pamplona.

Some of the train’s 250 passengers - including children - were trapped under the locomotive, Spanish national radio reported.

“It all happened in a second,” an unidentified woman told Spanish radio. “The suitcases tumbled down, people were thrown into the aisles. Everything was crushed together and the people inside were screaming. It was horrible. Horrible.”

Rescuers laid bodies in a row on the tracks and covered them with blankets. A child’s feet, wearing running shoes, protruded from under one.

Dozens of ambulances ferried the injured to hospitals in several cities.

State radio and private Antena 3 Television said 26 people died, but a Red Cross spokeswoman in Pamplona said she could confirm only 22 deaths. Seventeen of the 87 injured were in critical condition, the spokeswoman, Elena Marco, said.

It was not immediately clear what caused the wreck.