TRIBUTE: 75th anniversary of the biggest railway accident in Spain

SPAIN marked the 75^th anniversary of one of the worst rail accidents in its history last week.

The Torre del Bierzo railway accident happened on January 3 1944 after a passenger and freight train crashed into one another in a tunnel in Castilla y Leon.

The passenger train, which was travelling from Madrid to La Coruña in Galicia, was carrying an estimated 900 people in 12 carriages.

The then Franco regime claimed the death toll was 78. Later studies placed the figure anywhere between 200 and 800, with the regime believed to have concealed the true number to avoid criticism over its management of Spain’s railways.

The crash was the subject of Tunnel Number 20, Ramon de Fontecha’s documentary short which won a Goya Award in 2002.