High-speed train disaster in Barcelona

A HIGH-speed train has ploughed into a group of festival-goers, killing 12 youngsters, near Barcelona.

The AVE express was speeding through Castelldefels Playa station when it hit the group attempting to cross the line.

At least 14 people were injured, with three left in a critical condition, officials confirmed.

They youths were heading to the summer San Juan festival and decided to jump across the tracks, rather than walk through the crowded underpass.

Eye-witness, Marcelo Cardona, a Bolivian, who had been on the same train, said he saw “mutilated people, blood everywhere, blood on the platform.”

“The euphoria of getting off the train immediately became screams. There were people screaming, ‘my daughter, my sister’,” he explained.

Many locals have explained that it is normal for people to cross the track if the underpass is full of people.

Jordi Morell told the BBC: “The underpass is quite small and it has been the usual practice for crowded trains coming from Barcelona, to have at least a third of the passengers crossing the line.

“Even at my age (early 60s) I have got down from the platform and crossed the line rather than wait for the slow queue through the underpass.”

The incident happened at 2330 local time and is Spain’s worst rail accident since 2003, when 19 people were killed when trains collided at Chinchilla.