The driver of a train that hurtled off the rails killing 79 people in Spain appeared in court for questioning on Sunday, as the pilgrimage city of Santiago de Compostela mourned the dead. Flowers and candles were placed at the crash site and at the gates of the city's cathedral, a year-round destination for Roman Catholic pilgrims.
Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, the 52-year-old driver, arrived at the courthouse for the closed hearing in a police car wearing a blue shirt and hancuffs after spending the night in the north-western city's central police station.
Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz told reporters on Saturday that Garzon Amo was detained on suspicion of reckless homicide over Spain's deadliest rail accident since 1944.
The judge will decide whether to press formal charges, court officials said. The train was reported to have been travelling at more than twice the speed limit on a bend when it tore off the rails on Wednesday and slammed into a concrete wall.
A passenger who was critically injured in the crash died in hospital, health officials said Sunday, bringing the toll to 79, including eight foreigners.
"We are really feeling the impact. People are praying. It is a great tragedy," said Marlen de Francisco, a woman of 70 who sells souvenirs in the cathedral square.
"All day people are asking me for note paper so they can write messages and put them on the cathedral gates."
A memorial service is scheduled to be held in Santiago de Compostela on Monday.
Forensics police on Saturday identified the last three victims, including that of 35-year-old French veterinarian Jean-Baptiste Loirat who became a father last month.
"He was a very happy young father, adorable, very loving and family oriented," his aunt Marie-Anne Loirat told AFP in his hometown of Nantes in western France.
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