A high speed train in Spain has killed 12 people and injured at least 13 after it hit a group of people passing the tracks.

Spanish Rail authorities have said that the incident occurred while the train was passing through the Castelldefels Playa station close to Barcelona at around 23:30 local time on Wednesday.

Officials have also confirmed that three of the injured were in critical condition.

An unnamed official whom the Spanish media cited has said that the group had just come off another train and used the tracks to pass to the other side rather than an underpass.

Spanish news outlets also said that many of the dead and injured were young adults or teenagers who had been going to a festival to mark the beginning of summer.

St John’s Day, a popular public holiday in Spain which starts on the 24th of June is celebrated throughout the country and traditionally begins a day before on the 23rd.

It is though that the young adults were heading towards a beach resort for celebrations as the train whish was not scheduled to stop at the station hit the group travelling at high speed.

One eye witness said that the train which had arrived was packed with people and several used the tracks to pass to the other side rather than the underpass presumably to miss the congestion caused by the people.

The BBC also reported of an unnamed witness who said “The door was closed and we could not get through, so we tried to go through the side of the train, and there was no light and nobody alerted us that the train was coming. We were more than 30 people.”

Firefighters, medics and police officers were at the scene while the station was cordoned off and the station closed.

Officials also said that no one on the train was hurt from the crash.

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