Story highlights
- "People were dead, people were screaming in pain," witness says
- Those who heard the train crash were the first to reach the scene
- Rescuers formed human chains to move the dead and injured from the crash
- Scores of people were injured in the deadly crash
The last thing Elder Stephen Ward remembers is flying sideways out of his seat.
The 18-year-old Mormon from Bountiful, Utah, was on his way to the Spanish town where he was planning to start two years of missionary work when the train he was riding in derailed as it went around a sharp curve.
One minute, he was writing in his journal. The next, he was covered in blood.
Ward was one of scores of people injured in Wednesday's deadly crash.
"We had been going around some pretty sharp turns. We finally came to one more sharp turn, and the train, like, completely lifted up," he said. "It was leaning sideways. It felt like a roller coaster."
For a few seconds, Ward thought to himself, "Well, this is kind of weird."
Elder Stephen Ward says he hopes to resume his missionary service after he recuperates.
Others around him seemed puzzled but not alarmed. Then, he says, the other set of wheels left the rails.
Ward flew out of his seat and blacked out.
The sun had not yet set in Spain's northwest when a ferocious boom rang out, the sound of the high-speed train smashing into a concrete wall after derailing on a curve.
Witnesses say it was about five minutes before police arrived, but almost as soon as the crash happened, people nearby rushed to the scene.
CNN affiliate Atlas interviewed two men who were among the first to see the wrecked train.
One man, who was working with horses nearby, said he heard a "big noise" and then saw plumes of black smoke. He approached and called police when he saw the train on its side, one car snapped in half.
As the first responders arrived, he joined them in a human chain as they began pulling passengers out of the wrecked train cars.
Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain
Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain
Deadly train crash in Spain – Wreckage of the front locomotive of a derailed train stands on the road while workers repair the railway on Sunday, July 28, in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. A spokeswoman for the Galician regional government said that at least 79 people were confirmed dead in the train crash. It occurred on the eve of a public holiday, when more people than usual may have been traveling in the region.
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Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain
Deadly train crash in Spain – Train driver Francisco Jose Garzon is taken from a police station to the Preliminary Court in Santiago de Compostela on July 28.
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Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain
Deadly train crash in Spain – Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, second from left, and Galicia's regional President Alberto Nunez Feijoo, right, visit the site of the derailment on Friday, July 26.
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Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain
Deadly train crash in Spain – Injured people are evacuated at the site of the July 24 train accident. The driver of the train is being held, Spanish police said July 26.
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Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain
Deadly train crash in Spain – A train car is lifted Thursday, July 25, at Angrois near Santiago de Compostela, Spain. The train derailed as it hurtled around a curve at high speed on Wednesday, July 24.
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Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain
Deadly train crash in Spain – Emergency personnel work at the crash scene July 25. An investigation into the cause of the derailment is under way.
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Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain
Deadly train crash in Spain – Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, center, visits the crash site July 25 with Public Works Minister Ana Pastor, right, and Alberto Nunez Feijoo, head of the regional government in Galicia. The latter declared seven days of mourning for victims of the crash.
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Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain
Deadly train crash in Spain – A relative of one of the passengers waits to hear news in Santiago de Compostela on July 25.
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Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain
Deadly train crash in Spain – Other relatives of passengers wait for information in Santiago de Compostela on July 25.
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Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain
Deadly train crash in Spain – Rescue workers inspect a carriage in the wreckage July 25.
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Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain
Deadly train crash in Spain – A general view of the derailment in northwestern Spain on July 25.
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Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain
Deadly train crash in Spain – Emergency workers at the derailment scene July 25.
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Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain
Deadly train crash in Spain – Emergency personnel evacuate a man at the scene July 25.
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Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain
Deadly train crash in Spain – Emergency workers help passengers July 25.
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Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain
Deadly train crash in Spain – Women wait for news about crash victims in Santiago de Compostela on July 25.
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Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain
Deadly train crash in Spain – Teams at the crash site July 25 expect to find more bodies, an official says.
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Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain
Deadly train crash in Spain – The train was on its way from Madrid to the town of Ferrol with more than 200 passengers aboard.
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Deadly train crash in Spain – Train driver Francisco Jose Garzon, identified by Spanish newspapers El Pais and El Mundo, is helped from the scene by a police officer.
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Deadly train crash in Spain – The state railway company said the train derailed on a curve as it was approaching the train station in Santiago de Compostela.
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Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain
Deadly train crash in Spain – Emergency workers climb on top of the wreckage as they help free injured passengers from the crash.
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Deadly train crash in Spain – While it was unclear how fast the train was going at the time of the crash, it was capable of reaching up to 155 mph.
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Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain
Deadly train crash in Spain – Rescuers work to pull victims from the derailed cars.
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Deadly train crash in Spain – One person at the scene said he saw several passengers and witnesses helping get people out of the mangled cars.
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Deadly train crash in Spain – Rescuers work to clear a derailed car.
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Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain
Deadly train crash in Spain – "The efforts now center on searching for bodies and victims that could still be alive in the wreckage of the cars," journalist Ignacio Carballo from the Voz de Galicia newspaper told CNN en Español.
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Deadly train crash in Spain – Officials said blood donations were needed as a result of the crash.
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Frame-by-frame look at the train crash 02:51
Expert: Speed may not be only factor 03:19
Witness: Crash 'like a horror movie' 00:53
"People were dead, people were screaming in pain," he said.
The second man said the impact was so loud that it made his car shake. He saw ashen passengers pulling their children out as drivers stopped their cars and brought blankets and water to the scene.
"There are no words for what I saw ... I was traumatized," he said.
When Ward came to, he thought he was dreaming.
"The first thing I remember was the little circle of light that was the door," he says.
Someone helped him out of the train. A photo taken at the scene shows him leaning on a police officer as he walked beside the tracks, with blood oozing down his face and splattered on his crisp, white shirt.
He walked past dead bodies on the ground. He told London's Daily Telegraph that it looked like a scene from hell.
Ward waited for hours while victims with more serious injuries were taken to the hospital. As he watched rescue crews carry the dead and wounded, he cried and sang church hymns to calm himself down.
The sun set, and this place, where the track curves near Santiago de Compostela, was faintly illuminated by the red and yellow flashing lights of the ambulances.
A long line of ambulances formed next to the train tracks, as rescuers moved the dead and injured out of the train cars.
Video from the scene showed rescuers using a wooden board to carry out a body, covered in a blanket, which was then moved to an adjoining field and placed on the ground. The board was then reused for the next body.
Speed possibly a factor in train crash 02:38
CNN iReporter describes train crash site 04:15
Deadly high-speed-train crash 00:45
Witness: 'It was a horrific scene' 02:31
Rescuers continued to work in the dark, using flashlights.
Relatives of those on the train are awaiting a comprehensive list of the deceased. In the meantime, some are turning to Twitter, asking anyone for information about their missing loved ones.
"Please, desperation," wrote one woman on Twitter, asking about three missing girls. The replies came in that the girls were confirmed dead.
Atlas captured video of one man, apparently in desperation, running toward the mangled train, ignoring police whistles and calls to stop. The officers caught up with the man and turned him away.
The sun rose Thursday, as Spain began to understand the scale of this tragedy.
One of the cars was lifted with a crane and moved -- it looked like a candy wrapper, peeled at one end, its bottom nearly scraped off.
Ward was discharged from the hospital Thursday, wearing a neck brace because of a cracked vertebra he suffered in the crash. Lacerations on his face are stapled shut, and there's a huge bruise on his leg.
He says he hopes to resume his missionary service after he recuperates.
"I'm just all the more grateful to be here. I'm all the more grateful to still be alive," he says. "I really want to serve honorably. I know I've been kept alive for a reason."
