A commuter train collided with a crane in southeastern Spain on Thursday, marking the country’s fourth rail crash in less than a week, emergency services said.
Authorities reported that several people sustained minor injuries in the incident near the port city of Cartagena in the Murcia region. “The train has not overturned or derailed,” a spokesperson for Murcia’s emergency services said, adding that the first emergency calls were received shortly after noon.
“There are several lightly injured,” an AFP report quoted an emergency services spokeswoman as saying. She also confirmed that the crane involved did not belong to Renfe, Spain’s state-owned railway operator.
The latest crash comes days after a collision between two high-speed trains in the southern region of Andalusia on Sunday left 43 people dead, in what was Spain’s deadliest rail disaster in more than a decade.
On Tuesday, another commuter train struck debris from a collapsed retaining wall near Barcelona, killing one person and injuring 37 others.
In response to the string of incidents, the train drivers’ union has announced a three-day strike in February, saying it was “the only legal route left for workers to demand the restoration of the rail system’s safety” for both staff and passengers.