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A train run by private company Iryo derailed last Sunday and its rear carriages crossed on to the opposite track into the path of an oncoming train run by state-owned Renfe. The CIAF rail investigation commission said not only did Iryo train's front carriages which stayed on the track have "notches" in their wheels, but three earlier trains that went over the track earlier did too. A gap of almost 40cm (15in) in the track has become the focus of the investigation into the crash. Sunday's deadly collision occurred at around 19:45 local time (18:45 GMT), about an hour after the Iryo train left Malaga for Madrid. The train's last three carriages - carriages six to eight - derailed and collided with the Huelva-bound Renfe train. "Carriage six derailed due to a complete lack of continuity in the track," the preliminary report finds. Most of those killed and injured were in the front carriages of the state-operated train. [grey-place]Guardia Civil A photo shows a gap in the track in AndalusiaGuardia Civil The 40cm gap in the track was clearly visible the day after the disaster at Adamuz Earlier this week, Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente confirmed reports that grooves were found on the wheels of the Iryo train's carriages, which had passed over the track safely. "These notches in the wheels and the deformation observed in the track are compatible with the fact that the track was cracked," the CIAF preliminary report said. It added that three trains that had gone over the tracks at 17:21 on Sunday, 19:01 and then 19:09 had similar notches "with a compatible geometric pattern". Similar grooves are found on carriages two, three and four of the Iryo train, the report says, but carriage five - the last that did not derail - had a groove on its outer edge, suggesting the rail was already tilting outwards before carriage six derailed. The CIAF called its report a "working hypothesis", adding that it "must be corroborated by later detailed calculations and analysis". The transport minister appeared before reporters again on Friday to say that it was too early to have definitive answers, but that if the cause of the crash was the fracture, then it occurred in the minutes and hours before the derailment and could not have been detected. The Adamuz disaster is is the country's worst rail crash in more than a decade. In 2013, Spain suffered its worst high-speed train derailment in Galicia, north-west Spain, which left 80 people dead and 140 others injured. What we know about Spain's worst rail disaster in over a decade Shock and confusion as Spain struggles for answers after deadly train crash High-speed train crash in Spain kills at least 39 Spain --------------------------------------------------------------------- Related Tragic chapter on the trains sends rail superpower Spain into crisis Spanish prosecutors dismiss Julio Iglesias sex assault allegations What we know about Spain's worst rail disaster in over a decade --------------------------------------------------------------------- * Home * News * Sport * Business * Innovation * Health * Culture * Arts * Travel * Earth * Audio * Video * Live * Documentaries * Weather * BBC Shop * BritBox BBC in other languages The BBC is in multiple languages Read the BBC In your own language Oduu Afaan Oromootiin Amharic zeenaa ba'amaarenyaa Arabic `rby Azeri AZ@RBAYCAN Bangla baaNlaa Burmese m[?]n[?]maa Chinese Zhong Wen Wang Dari dry French AFRIQUE Hausa HAUSA Hindi hindii Gaelic NAIDHEACHDAN Gujarati gujraatiimaaN smaacaar Igbo AKUKO N'IGBO Indonesian INDONESIA Japanese Ri Ben Yu Kinyarwanda GAHUZA Kirundi KIRUNDI Korean hangugeo Kyrgyz Kyrgyz Marathi mraatthii Nepali nepaalii Noticias para hispanoparlantes Pashto pStw Persian frsy Pidgin Polish PO POLSKU Portuguese BRASIL Punjabi pNjaabii khhbraaN Russian NA RUSSKOM Serbian NA SRPSKOM Sinhala siNhl Somali SOMALI Swahili HABARI KWA KISWAHILI Tamil tmilllil ceytikll Telugu telugu vaartlu Thai khaawphaasaaaithy Tigrinya zeenaa betegerenyaa Turkish TURKCE Ukrainian UKRAYiNS'KA Urdu rdw Uzbek O'ZBEK Vietnamese TIENG VIET Welsh NEWYDDION Yoruba IROYIN NI YORUBA Follow BBC on: * Terms of Use * Subscription Terms * About the BBC * Privacy Policy * Cookies * Accessibility Help * Contact the BBC * Advertise with us * Do not share or sell my info * BBC.com Help & FAQs * Content Index Copyright 2026 BBC. 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