Fourth in a week: Train collides with crane in Spain's Murcia region

A commuter train collided with a crane in southeastern Spain on Thursday, emergency services said, in the country's fourth rail crash in less than a week.

Several people suffered minor injuries in the crash near the port city of Cartagena in Murcia region, authorities added.

"The train hasn't been overturned or derailed," a spokesperson for Murcia's emergency services said. The first calls about the crash came in just after noon, they added.

Spain is still reeling from Sunday's high-speed train collision in the southern Andalusia region that killed at least 43 people.

Two days after that, a commuter train derailed after a containment wall fell on the track due to heavy rain near the city of Barcelona, killing the driver and seriously injuring four passengers.

The main train drivers' union called a nationwide strike over safety standards after that and a second collision in the northeastern Catalonia region the same day, Tuesday.

On Thursday, Spanish rail operator Adif said traffic on the line in Murcia was disrupted by what it described as "the intrusion into the infrastructure gauge by a crane not belonging to the railway operation". Its message on X did not go into more detail.

A later posting said servicexs had resumed on the line.

-David Latona and Emma Pinedo/Reuters