Fourth train incident in 5 days: ‘passenger lightly injured’ after train hits crane in Murcia

The passenger train was travelling along the Cartagena – Los Nietos line when it collided with a crane, according to the emergency coordination centre in the Murcia region.

Murcia emergency services confirmed the accident occurred in the municipality of Alumbres. According to initial reports, three people had been injured. This was later updated to one passenger having sustained ‘minor injuries’.

The train did not derail and was carrying 16 passengers at the time.

Emergency medical and fire crews were dispatched to the scene and treated one person for several cuts and two others for anxiety attacks, Spanish media reported.

The train, which had left Cartagena at 11.40am, was scheduled to enter Los Nietos around 12.30pm, but near Alumbres it collided with a crane that was encroaching along the side of the track, according to RENFE.

Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente was quick to point out on X that the incident was ‘not a train error’. 

‘A public lighting basket-crane vehicle from Cartagena has encroached with its arm into the public railway domain, striking the windows of a metric-gauge train that was passing by at that moment,’ he posted (see below).

Traffic was suspended on the line between the city of Cartagena and the village of Los Nietos, a RENFE spokesperson said.

The incident comes after three other train accidents in Spain over the past five days, two of them deadly. The first was a train collision near the southern city of Córdoba on Sunday in which at least 43 people died. ALSO READ: Death toll rises to 43 as royals visit train crash site and Spain starts three days of mourning.

On Tuesday, there were two separate train derailments in Catalonia. The first one killed one the trainee train drivers and injured dozens more, whereas the other accident did not result in any injuries. ALSO READ: One dead, 37 injured, as commuter train ploughs into rubble of collapsed wall near Barcelona.

Spain’s railway system is currently experienced an unprecedented crisis of confidence. ALSO READ: Chaos in Catalonia as rail network suspended for second day, as train drivers insist on more safety guarantees.