MOSCOW, July 25 (RIA Novosti) - The death toll in a high-speed commuter train derailment in the northwest of Spain near the city of Santiago de Compostela is at least 77 people, according to multiple news reports.
Seventy-three people died at the scene of the disaster, while another four died after being hospitalized, Spanish officials said Thursday, according to the BBC.
The train en route from Madrid to Ferrol carrying about 218 passengers derailed on Wednesday at around 8:30 p.m. local time, when it approached a bend at high speed and one of its cars flew off the railway. All the train's eight carriages came off the tracks.
RTVE television channel reported citing the Spanish Interior Ministry that it was not a terrorist attack that caused the tragedy.
According to reports from El Mundo, the train was exceeding the speed limit at the bend by up to 140 kph (87 mph). The agency cited a representative of the surrounding Galicia region, Samuel Juarez, as saying that the train was moving at a speed of 220 kph (136 mph), while the permitted speed limit at that bend was 80 kph (50 mph).
BBC reported, citing local media, that the current accident is the worst in Spain in four decades.
(Updates headline, lead, recasts throughout)
