Some of the passengers were asleep, some had already began their working day on laptops – and others scrolled through their apps on their telephones.

The journey was interrupted with an announcement that there was congestion on the tracks. This lasted a few minutes – for some, a bit longer for others.

Tangui Binier, 22, was in the Iryo prepare, the entrance carriage, quantity eight. His father was in quantity seven.

Their prepare was one of six to have been ordered to cease at 08:30. A few minutes later, “the train started speeding”, Binier instructed the BBC, “then it came to a sudden halt”.

Baffled, he regarded out of the window and saw “wires on the left side come down, and then there being just a lot of smoke behind us.”

Spanish journalist Roberto Gómez was dozing on the high-speed Renfe prepare which had stopped more than 25km (16 miles) away from Binier’s.

It was a temporary cease. A few minutes later, the prepare started to transfer again, he defined, and then the crash occurred.

He did not know that at 08:36 his prepare had been ordered to proceed with the journey and some 17 minutes later the “truly unbelievable” occurred, Spain’s Transport Minister Óscar Puente said.

“The impact was terrible,” Gómez instructed Onda Cero radio. “You can imagine, the carriage is completely destroyed. All the suitcases are all over the wrecked carriage.”

Gómez suffered only minor accidents but described another passenger falling on prime of him and sustaining a deep gash on his head.

“We were able to help people who had suffered severe blows to their chest and ribs,” he said.

Rafael Barcelo was in one of the worst-affected carriages. A bruise on his brow makes him one of the fortunate survivors. He was having a espresso at the time of the crash and “felt a huge impact”.

“We were all thrown into the air,” he instructed Reuters information company at the web site of the crash.

“I am reasonably OK, my friend is quite worse.”

“I was travelling in coach seven, which is the one with more victims and the one most destroyed. I at least counted eight victims in that coach,” he said, visibly shocked.