‘Miracle’ 6-year-old girl is the only member of her family to survive Spanish train wreck

The roar was deafening inside the train car as it hurtled off the tracks, then slid down a steep slope, ripping open its frame. And then, amid the twisted metal of the wreckage, the cries of the injured and the silence of the dead.

Surrounded by bodies after the train accident in southern Spain, one little girl somehow emerged virtually unscathed.

Newspaper La Vanguardia reported that a Civil Guard officer found her barefoot on the tracks after she escaped through a broken window.

Relative Juan Barroso told reporters the 6-year-old is in good health after receiving three stitches in her head at a hospital. The mayor of her family’s village said he was finding a measure of solace in the fact this girl was out of harm’s way.

“There are many people who are very sad for the victims of this terrible accident, but there were also many who survived, like the miracle of the girl who is safe,” Punta Umbria’s Mayor José Carlos Hernández told reporters Tuesday after leading a minute of silence for the victims.