MADRID (Reuters) – A six-year-old girl was found walking alone along railway tracks on Sunday night, her parents, brother and cousin all killed in a high-speed collision between two trains in southern Spain. She went on an outing to Madrid with her family to see “The Lion King” musical.
The girl, whose official name has not been released, suffered only minor head injuries. The family was returning to their home in Aljarak on the Atlantic coast near Huelva, Spanish media reported.
This musical tour is a gift from Spain’s Epiphany, which is celebrated along with Christmas. The family also visited Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, local broadcaster Canal Sur reported.
Mayor Al-Halaq called the girl’s survival a “miracle.”
Adrian Cano said: “The town is shattered by grief and there are few words of comfort.”
The girl was cared for overnight by a police officer before being reunited with her grandmother in Cordoba, authorities said.
Her story is one of a series told by grieving family members or worried relatives on social media or on local broadcasters about those missing or killed in Europe’s deadliest train crash.
Woman and unborn child fighting for life in hospital
Alberto Garcia told Antena 3 that his daughter, who is five months pregnant, is in intensive care after being seriously injured in the accident. He said doctors had sedated her and put her on a ventilator and were keeping a close eye on the unborn child, who still had a heartbeat.
Relatives told El Pais that firefighters pulled the passenger from the twisted wreckage after she smashed windows to escape the train. Her sister Ana, who was traveling with her and their dog, suffered minor injuries. Relatives say the dog, named Boro, is still missing.
Anna said she believed her sister may have been injured while protecting the animal. “If I can’t do anything for her, at least I hope to find Boro,” she told local newspaper Le Monde.
The Spanish government declared three days of national mourning and suspended high-speed rail services between Madrid and cities in Andalusia while investigators and rail safety experts cleared and combed the tracks.
Julio Rodriguez, 16, one of the first residents of Adamuz, where the train accident occurred, passed by the scene after returning from fishing and went to help with the rescue.
“I got here and my body became someone else’s. All I could think about was helping. I walked 800 meters back and forth six to eight times. I didn’t stop to think about fatigue,” King Felipe told reporters on Tuesday after he thanked him and others during a visit to the crash site.
Many people are still searching for their loved ones. Official figures say families have filed 47 missing persons reports, but only 10 victims have been identified so far.
Relatives and colleagues appealed online for information about cardiologist Jesus Saldana, whose name was not found in any hospital or official lists of the injured or dead, his sister told Cadena Ser radio station. She added that although they found his phone, there was still no word from him.
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo and Jesús Calero; Editing by Aislinn Laing, Alexandra Hudson)