Marta Shahbazi died in a Spanish train crash near Urda, south of Madrid. The collision killed at least 69 people and involved a Renfe high-speed train and a stationary Iryo train.
Shahbazi was a scientist at the University of Cambridge and led a group of researchers at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. She was due to receive a Spanish Society for Developmental Biology award in El Rompido, Andalusia, for work on early human development.
University of Cambridge and MRC
The University of Cambridge and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology said Shahbazi was on one of the trains involved in the collision before later saying she had died. CiMUS described her as a brilliant young researcher and said she was the aunt of María José Alonso.
CiMUS said: “The CiMUS community would like to express its support and deepest sympathies to our dear PI María José Alonso, following the death of her niece, Marta Shahbazi, in the railway accident that occurred on 28 October.” It added: “Marta was a brilliant young researcher, group leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Affiliate Associate Professor at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge.”
Spain and Castilla-La Mancha
Esther Padilla said the Iryo-managed train carried 146 passengers plus one baby, while the Renfe-managed train had 397 passengers on board. More than 540 people were aboard the two trains, and Spain declared three days of national mourning after the crash.
The accident has become one of the worst rail disasters in Europe’s modern history and Spain’s worst crash since 2013. What caused the Renfe train to smash into the back of the stationary Iryo train near Urda has not been explained in the facts released so far, leaving the collision itself at the center of the investigation.
