PH monitoring tragic train accident in Madrid

Emergency personnel conduct rescue operation at the site of derailed trains in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on Thursday, July 25, 2013. A passenger train derailed Wednesday night on a curvy stretch of track in northwestern Spain, killing at least 40 people caught inside toppled cars and injuring at least 140 in the country’s worst rail accident in decades, officials said. AP Photo/ Lalo Villar

MANILA, Philippines –The Philippine Embassy in Madrid, Spain is monitoring whether there are Filipino victims in the train crash that left at least 77 people dead, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Thursday.

“Ambassador Carlos Salinas of our Philippine Embassy in Madrid [said that] based on information from local authorities, so far there are no Filipino casualties in the train accident in Santiago de Compostela in Spain,” DFA spokesman assistant secretary Raul Hernandez said in a text message.

“The embassy continues to check with Spanish authorities to determine if there is any Filipino involved in the accident,” he said.

The death toll from the accident Wednesday night in Spain has reached 77 so far with at least 140 injured, according to reports.

Reports of local newspapers quoted the train driver as saying he was travelling at 190 kilometers per hour (kph), twice the speed limit of 80 kph.

The cause of the accident was still under investigation, local authorities were quoted as saying.

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