A train that crashed killing 78 people in northern Spain was reportedly travelling at nearly three times the speed limit.

Survivors have described carriages flipping and bursting into flames after the train came off the tracks on a bend just outside Santiago de Compostela, a popular pilgrimage city in northwestern Spain.

The carriages piled into each other and folded up like an accordion. One was ripped apart by the force of the crash, one of its ends pushed up into the air.

Rescue teams worked through the night, searching the wreckage for survivors from one of the worst train disasters in Spain for decades.

Firefighters clambered over the twisted metal trying to get survivors out of the windows. Bodies covered in blankets lay next to the overturned carriages as smoke billowed from the wreckage.

More than 130 people were injured, including one British national. Some were in a serious condition.

At dawn, some carriages were lifted from the tracks.

“The scene is shocking, it’s Dante-esque,” said the head of the surrounding Galicia region, Alberto Nunez Feijoo.

The high-speed train travelling from Madrid to the port city of Ferrol was carrying 218 passengers plus crew when it crashed.

“It was going so quickly,” passenger Ricardo Montesco said.

“It seems that on a curve the train started to twist, and the wagons piled up one on top of the other.

“A lot of people were squashed on the bottom. We tried to squeeze out of the bottom of the wagons to get out and we realised the train was burning,” he said.

“I saw corpses.”

El Pais newspaper cited sources close to the investigation as saying the train was travelling at over twice the speed limit on a sharp curve.

It suggested the train was travelling at more than 110mph (180kph) when the accident happened.

Another Spanish newspaper, El Mundo, reported that the train had been travelling at nearly 140mph (220kph) in an urban zone with a speed limit of  just 50mph (80kph).

Both state rail company Renfe and state-owned Adif, which is in charge of the tracks, have opened an investigation into the cause of the derailment but no statement will be made until the train’s black boxes are examined.

However, officials ruled out and act of terrorism, like the commuter train bombing attacks in Madrid in 2004 that killed 191 people, and sabotage.

Clinics in Santiago de Compostela were overwhelmed with people flocking to give blood, while hotels organised free rooms for relatives.

City officials cancelled ceremonies planned for today, when Catholic pilgrims converge on the city to celebrate a festival honouring St James, the disciple of Jesus whose remains are said to rest in a shrine.

Santiago de Compostela is the main gathering point for the faithful who make it to the end of the El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route that has drawn Christians since the Middle Ages.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who was born in the city, will visit the site later today.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was “very saddened to hear of the terrible train accident”.

“My thoughts are with all those affected and their friends and family,” said Mr Hague, who added that the British Embassy was providing support for the Briton who was hurt.

Pope Francis, on a visit to Brazil, called for prayers for the victims.

It was Spain’s deadliest train accident since 1972, when a train collided with a bus in southwestern Spain, killing 86 people and injuring 112.

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