The tail end of an evening train between Malaga and Madrid with some 300 passengers went off the rails near Cordoba at 7:45 pm local time and slammed into a train with some 200 passengers coming from Madrid to Huelva, another southern Spanish city, according to rail operator Adif
Spain's Transport Minister Oscar Puente updated the death toll to 21 confirmed victims after midnight when he said that rescues had removed all the survivors. But Puente said there could be more victims still to be confirmed
Puente said the causes of the crash were unknown. He called it "a truly strange" incident because it happened on a flat stretch of track that had been renovated in May
He also said the train that jumped the track was less than four years old. That train belonged to the private company Iryo, while the second train that took the brunt of the impact of Spain's public train company Renfe
Iryo issued a statement saying it "deeply lamented what has happened" and that it was working with authorities to manage the situation
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