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At least 39 people have died and many more have been injured in a train crash in southern Spain after a high-speed service derailed on Sunday evening and collided with an oncoming train.

Spain's rail infrastructure authority, Adif, said the crash happened at 7:45 pm near the municipality of Adamuz, in Cordoba Province.

The Malaga-Madrid high-speed train, operated by the Iryo rail company and carrying roughly 300 passengers, left the tracks and collided with a Madrid-Huelva train, operated by the state rail company, Renfe, with about 200 aboard.

Rescue operations continued into the night, with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez calling it "a night of deep pain" for the nation. It is the country's worst rail crash in more than a decade, Spain's Civil Guard said.

Emergency services treated 122 people for injuries, while 48 remain in hospital, including five children, with 11 adults and one child in intensive care, the BBC reported.

Rescue crews said the mangled wreckage hampered efforts to reach and remove passengers trapped inside the carriages.

Transport Minister Oscar Puente said on Monday that the death toll "is not yet final" as officials opened a probe. He described the event as "extremely strange", noting it occurred on a flat section of track that was renovated in May, and told reporters in Madrid that rail experts "are extremely baffled by the accident".

"I want to express all my gratitude for the huge effort of the rescue teams during the night, under very difficult circumstances, and my condolences to the victims and their families in these terribly painful moments," he wrote on social media.

In a statement, Iryo said it "deeply regrets the incident, has activated all its emergency protocols, and is collaborating closely with Adif, Renfe, and the relevant authorities to determine the causes and manage the situation as effectively as possible".

Services suspended

Rail services between Madrid and several cities in the Andalusian region were suspended on Monday as investigators probe the crash in a country that operates Europe's largest high-speed network, spanning more than 3,100 kilometers.

Infrastructure operator Adif said the collision occurred about an hour after the train left Malaga for Madrid, when it came off the tracks on a straight section of the track.

Transport Minister Puente said the force of the crash pushed the second train's carriages onto an embankment. Most of the fatalities and injuries were concentrated in the front carriages of the Madrid-Huelva train, which was heading south, he added.

He said it will be at least a month before investigators can conclude what happened.

jonathan@mail.chinadailyuk.com