THE death toll in the Spanish train crash has been confirmed at 78, and more than 140 people have been hurt.
Official mourning has been declared in Spain, and a festival in the city of Santiago has been cancelled.
The derailment affected a train approaching Santiago in the north west of the country last night, and appears to have been caused by excessive speed on a curve. Unconfirmed reports have spoken of an 80km/h limit at the site of the crash, but the train is believed to have been travelling at more than twice that speed.
Safety officials are now asking why the train was travelling so fast. The drivers survived, and one is being interviewed by police.
A recording of the crash from a security camera has been widely circulated, and it appears to show that a coach behind the power car became derailed first. This then dragged the back of the power car to the right, overturning it.
The Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has declared three days of national mourning.
He said: "Today is a very difficult day. Today we have lived through a terrible, dramatic accident, which I fear will stay with us for a long time.
"For someone from Santiago, like myself, believe me, this is the saddest Day of Saint James of my life."
The accident has focused international attention on railway safety, following the deaths of at least 47 people and the partial destruction of a town in the Canadian province of Quebec earlier this month, after some rail tankers containing oil ran away on a gradient and exploded. This was followed by the derailment of a French intercity train last week, in which six people lost their lives.