Twelve Ecuadoreans die in Spain as train hits van

Twelve migrant Ecuadorean farm labourers were killed in Spain yesterday when a train crushed their van on a level crossing as they headed to work, a government spokesman said. Two other occupants of the crowded van, including a 13-year-old girl, were seriously injured in the accident near the town of Lorca in the southeastern region of Murcia. Immigrant associations denounced the lack of safety and precarious conditions suffered by poor farm workers. “The final count appears to be 12 dead and two seriously injured,” the government's representative in Murcia, Jose Joaquin Penarrubia, told Spanish state television. Television showed the van reduced to twisted metal and the train completely derailed with coaches strewn across the track. None of the 30 train passengers was seriously injured. “The van was totally destroyed and I saw seven or eight bodies scattered around,” train passenger Gaspar Hernandez told state television. The train was travelling between the towns of Aguilas and Murcia when it struck the van on a crossing without barriers two km (a mile) south of Lorca at around 0630 GMT.