At least 39 people have been killed and dozens more injured after two high-speed trains operated by Renfe and Iryo collided in southern Spain on Sunday night, in a disaster that the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, described as “a night of deep pain for our country”.

A high-speed Iryo service travelling from Málaga to Madrid derailed at around 7.40pm near the municipality of Adamuz, in the province of Córdoba. According to Adif, the train crossed onto the opposite track, where it collided with an oncoming Renfe-operated service.

The Renfe train also derailed and went down an embankment. Emergency services in Andalucía said on Monday that 122 people had been treated for their injuries, with 48 still in hospital. Twelve of those remain in intensive care units.

Juanma Moreno, the president of Andalucía’s regional government, told Spanish radio that some bodies were found hundreds of feet away from the collision site, underlining the violence of the impact.

Iryo, the private company operating the Málaga-to-Madrid service, said the train involved in the crash had been manufactured in 2022 and was last inspected on Thursday. The company said 289 passengers were on board, along with four crew members and a driver.

Spain’s transport minister, Óscar Puente, said the cause of the accident had yet to be established and warned that the current death toll was not final. In a post on social media, he said rescue and recovery efforts were continuing and that further updates were expected.

The president of Renfe, Álvaro Fernández Heredia, said both high-speed trains were travelling within permitted speed limits before the crash. He added that the collision was unlikely to have been the result of human error, citing automated safety systems designed to correct such mistakes.

Speaking earlier at a press conference at Atocha station, Puente described it as “really strange” that a derailment occurred on a straight stretch of track, particularly one that had been renewed as recently as May.

The crash is Spain’s deadliest rail disaster in more than a decade. The country’s worst rail tragedy this century occurred in July 2013, when a train derailed in the north-western region of Galicia, killing 80 people.

Rail traffic in the area remains suspended as investigators examine train data recorders and track infrastructure.