The regional government’s president, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, said at the scene that the train’s Portuguese engineer and Spanish ticket collector were among the dead, as well as two passengers. One was said to be a US tourist who died on the train but no further details were given about their identity. The other was a 23-year-old local man who died in hospital.
The regional government said 27 injured passengers were in emergency care. The injured were mostly Spanish and Portuguese but also included people from the United States, Germany and Latin America, it said.
The train was approaching O Porriño station when it derailed on a straight stretch of track. The front car came off the track and crashed into an electricity pylon, crushing the engineer’s cab. The back two cars were left partly off the tracks.
The train was carrying 63 passengers, the Spanish state rail company Renfe said. It left Vigo at 9.02am and had been scheduled to arrive in Porto two hours later. It belonged to the Portuguese rail company Comboios de Portugal. The railway infrastructure company Adif said it had opened an investigation.
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