A train driver has been killed and dozens of others injured after a commuter train crashed into the rubble of a wall that collapsed onto railway tracks outside Barcelona, emergency workers said. The crash in Gelida, approximately 40km west of Barcelona, in Catalonia in northeastern Spain on Tuesday, comes just two days after a separate train collision killed at least 42 people in the country's southern Andalusia region. Claudi Gallardo, inspector for the fire service in the Catalonia region, said in televised comments from the site of Tuesday's crash that 37 people had been injured, four of them seriously. "There are four seriously injured, and one person who has passed away," Gallardo said, adding that all passengers had been removed from the site of the crash. Catalonia's civil protection agency posted on social media that "a retaining wall collapsed onto the tracks, causing an accident involving a passenger train". The incident occurred as heavy storms battered north-eastern Spain, with coastal areas in the east and north-west of Spain on high alert because of the weather. Rail officials believe the wall collapsed as the train was passing shortly after 21:00 (20:00 GMT) on Tuesday evening, striking the driver's cab first and then causing considerable damage to the first carriage of the train in which most of the injured passengers were travelling. Emergency services said they had evacuated some of the injured to nearby Moisès Broggi, Bellvitge, and Vilafranca hospitals. Services across Catalonia's main Rodalies commuter rail network have been suspended completely while safety checks are carried out and officials say they will not resume until lines are considered safe. The latest crash comes as Spain began three days of mourning for the victims of Sunday's deadly train accident that took place some 800km (497 miles) away, near Adamuz, Cordoba province, in Andalusia. Spanish train drivers' union Semaf has called a strike as a result of the two deadly crashes. "All members of Semaf are devastated and consider this situation of constant deterioration of the railway unacceptable," the union said in a statement. Meanwhile, another train on the Barcelona commuter network also derailed on Tuesday. "The axle was struck by a rock dislodged by the storm," Spain's rail network operator Adif said in a statement. The train was running between Blanes and Maçanet-Massanes, north-east of Barcelona and reportedly carrying about 10 passengers. As a result of the suspension of services across the entire Rodalies network in Catalonia some 400,000 commuters are expected to be affected, according to Spanish newspaper El País. — Agencies
