high-speed train passing through a Spanish railway station has hit a group of young people crossing the tracks, killing at least 12 people.

high-speed train passing through a Spanish railway station has hit a group of young people crossing the tracks, killing at least 12 people.

The train was travelling through Castelldefels Playa station near Barcelona when the incident occurred.

At least 14 other people were injured, three critically, officials said.

It is believed they were heading to the beach to celebrate a summer festival and were crossing the tracks rather than using a pedestrian underpass.

They had just arrived on a commuter train from Barcelona. The authorities have said the underpass was signposted and open.

'Brutal'
One witness, Fernando Ortega, told Spanish media the train they had arrived on was "very full" and a large group of people "decided to jump across the tracks and cross to the other side of the station" to avoid the crush.

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The euphoria of getting off the train immediately became screams

Marcelo Cardona
Eye-witness
"At that moment a train came from the other direction and ran everyone over."

Another witness, who was not named, said: "The door was closed and we could not get through, so we tried to go through the side of the train, and there was no light and nobody alerted us that the train was coming. We were more than 30 people."

Marcelo Cardona, a Bolivian who was on the commuter train, said the youths had crossed "in a wave" but that he had held back and waited on the platform.

"The euphoria of getting off the train immediately became screams. There were people screaming, 'my daughter, my sister,'" he told the Associated Press.

Mr Cardona said he saw "mutilated people, blood everywhere, blood on the platform".

The owner of a nearby supermarket described the impact between the train and the pedestrians as "brutal".

"The noise was like rocks being crushed," he told El Mundo.

The accident happened at around 2330 local time (2130 GMT), the interior ministry of Catalonia said.

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