SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, SPAIN, 25th July 2013 (WAM): Spanish investigators were trying to determine Thursday why a passenger train jumped the tracks and sent eight cars crashing into each other just before arriving in this northwestern shrine city on the eve of a major Christian religious festival, killing at least 77 people and injuring more than 140, according to the Associated Press (AP).

Seventy-three people were found dead at the scene of the accident and four died in hospitals, Maria Pardo Rios, spokeswoman for the Galicia region's main court, was quoted by AP as saying.

At least 141 people were injured ??" some of them critically ??" after the eight-carriage train carrying 218 passengers derailed about an hour before sunset Wednesday night.

Authorities did not identify any possible causes of the accident on a pronounced curve just outside Santiago de Compostela, but a spokeswoman with Spain's Interior Ministry said Thursday that the possibility that the derailment was caused by a terrorist attack had been ruled out. She spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ministry policy.

It was Spain's deadliest train accident since 1972, when a train collided with a bus in southwestern Spain, killing 86 people and injuring 112. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who was born in Santiago de Compostela, went to the crash scene on Thursday. Officials in the city canceled ceremonies for its annual religious festival that attracts tens of thousands of Christians from around the world.

Rescue workers spent the night searching through smashed cars alongside the tracks, and Pardo said it was possible that the death toll could go higher. A regional Galicia health official, Rocio Mosquera, told reporters at a press conference early Thursday morning that 141 passengers from the train had been treated at area hospitals, with their conditions ranging from light injuries to serious. Some were still in surgery hours after the crash.

The accident created a scene that was "Dante-esque," said Alberto Nunez Feijoo, president of the region of Galicia where Santiago de Compostela is the capital. He declared seven days of mourning to honor the victims.

Several injured passengers said they felt a strong vibration just before the cars jumped the tracks, said Xabier Martinez, a photographer who talked with them after arriving at the scene as rescue workers were removing dozens of bodies.

The train, which belongs to the state-owned Renfe, started from Madrid and was scheduled to end its journey at El Ferrol, about 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Santiago de Compostela. Although it was not one of Spain's fastest trains called AVEs, it was a relatively luxurious version that uses the same kind of track as Spain's fastest expresses.

Other major train crashes in Spain over the decades include a 1944 accident on a train traveling from Madrid to the Galicia region that killed 78 people. A subway crash in the southern city of Valencia killed 43 people in 2006 and was blamed on excessive speed. The Madrid train bombings carried out in 2004 killed 191 people.

___

Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2013.