A commuter train carrying around 150 people has derailed outside the Spanish city of Barcelona this morning, killing one person and injuring at least 49, police said, quoted by rte.ie

A landslide triggered the crash between the northeastern towns of Terrassa and Manresa just after 6am (5am Irish time), a spokeswoman for train company Renfe said.

Rescue workers were trying to free passengers trapped in the wreckage, Spanish television reported.

The north of Spain has suffered heavy rains in the last few days, causing flooding and landslides.

Images broadcast on Spanish television showed rescue workers evacuating passengers. Rocks piled up on the side of one carriage.

The area was fitted with netting to hold back rocks "but it did not resist the landslide," Transport Minister Jose Luis Abalos told news radio Cadena Ser. He said his ministry would investigate the cause of the accident.

Landslides had already caused trains to derail in the same area in 2009 and 2011, according to local press reports.

No one was injured in the derailment in 2009 but in 2011 the 11 people were lightly hurt, according to the reports.

In 2013, 79 people died when a train travelling from Madrid to the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela came off the tracks. It was Spain's worst train wreck for decades.

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