Cucurella’s wife recounts shock after train narrowly avoids Spain crash

Claudia Rodriguez, the wife of Real Madrid and Spain player Marc Cucurella, was travelling on a train behind one involved in Wednesday’s fatal high-speed collision in Spain.

Her train was forced to turn back to Madrid after the crash, which killed at least 74 people, according to an updated toll released on Thursday by the Railway Accident Investigation Commission, part of Spain’s Ministry of Transport.

Rodriguez said she had been travelling to Malaga on the following service when the accident happened.

“I was on my way to Malaga on the next train and I am in shock,” she wrote on social media. “I would like to express my full support to the relatives and friends of the victims.”

She later clarified that the train she was travelling on had not been damaged and was not directly involved in the collision.

“I am fine, everyone. My train was not affected at all because there was a considerable distance between it and the train involved in the accident,” Rodriguez said.

“We only had to turn around and head back to Madrid because we were travelling on the same track.”

Rodriguez added that she had been deeply shaken by the thought that the incident could have involved her train if it had happened later.

“I am shocked just thinking that, if the accident had happened later, the same thing could have happened to my train,” she said. “But that cannot be compared with what the people on the train involved in the accident experienced.”

What happened in the collision?

The crash took place on Wednesday morning in the municipality of Urda, in the Castilla-La Mancha region of central Spain.

A Renfe train collided with a service operated by the private company Iryo after the latter had stopped because of an electronic failure in its signalling system, according to information contained in the report.

About 550 people were travelling on the two trains at the time of the collision.

The disaster prompted Spain to declare 72 hours of national mourning, as the country faced widespread shock over one of the deadliest railway accidents in its history.

The updated death toll of at least 74 was announced on Thursday by the Railway Accident Investigation Commission. Rodriguez’s train was among those travelling behind the service involved in the crash, but the distance between the trains meant it was not affected beyond having to reverse its journey to Madrid.