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Carmelo (in the mustard-coloured sweatshirt) hugs Julio in the presence of the boy's mother. Adamuz train crash 2026 Father thanks two teens who rescued his son after Cordoba train crash: 'You fell from heaven to save him'Julio and José, 16, were returning from fishing when they came across the train crash and rushed to help as many people as they could
Málaga
Thursday, 22 January 2026, 14:40
Carmelo went through the hardest two hours of his life on the night of 18 January, when he couldn't reach his son José Manuel on the phone.
His hopes were answered when the young man called Carmelo's wife and said the anticipated 'I'm fine'. José Manuel was one of the passengers rescued by two 16-year-old boys whocame across the train disaster.
Julio and José had spent the day fishing, accompanied by Julio's mother, Eli. On their way back, they saw a convoy of police cars and ambulances, which they decided to follow. This is how they became two of the first people at the scene of the train crash near Adamuz (Cordoba) on Sunday.
"It was chaos. People were desperate, screaming. In that moment, you don't think about anything else but helping," Julio said in an interview for Canal Sur.
While he and José were trying to help as many people as they could, pulling them out of the damaged trains and walking the 800 metres to where the ambulances were stationed, Carmelo was waiting for a call. José Manual had gone to Madrid with a friend and that friend's mother to watch the match between Madrid and Levante. Carmelo stayed in Ayamonte to watch a football match in which his younger son played.
When he heard about the accident, he got into the car and drove as fast as he could to Cordoba. The whole time, he was trying to get to José Manuel over the phone, but no one answered.
"I spent the worst two hours of my life. I thought my son had died," Carmelo said in an interview on Canal Sur's Hoy en Día programme. The nightmare ended as it began, with a phone call. It was José Manuel. "He asked a nurse for the phone and called my wife," Carmelo said.
José Manuel only suffered fractures in his left arm and has already been discharged. While his friend is okay, they still don't know anything about the mother accompanying them to Madrid, Rocío.
Carmelo wanted to go on television to meet the "angel" that had saved his son and thank him in person. In the moments after the crash, José Manuel was trapped inside the carriage. Someone pushed the iron bars aside and offered him a hand to get him out. José Manuel didn't know who it was or what his name was. The only detail embedded in his memory was that his saviour was wearing a black Puma tracksuit.
Since hearing about Julio, Carmelo has been wanting to give him the biggest hug and thank him. On Wednesday, the 16-year-old boys and Eli travelled by taxi to meet with Carmelo - an enounter that happened in front of Canal Sur's cameras. "I'm going to give you such a hug you won't be able to breathe," Carmelo told Julio.
"He's just like my youngest, they all look the same," the father said. "You're an amazing child and so are you," he added after meeting José. "You fell from the sky to save my son."
Julio remembered José Manuel perfectly. "He's a footballer, isn't he?" he asked Carmelo. "He was trying to walk, but he couldn't. He said he was in a dream. He kept saying: 'Wake me up, wake me up.' I didn't know how to comfort him, I told him he was a warrior for being alive. When we took him out of the carriage, I had to ask him to slow down because I was without shoes. I had given them to someone else and was walking on glass," the boy said.
On Tuesday, the King and Queen of Spain visited Adamuz and personally greeted Julio, recognising his irreplaceable contribution to rescuing the victims of the train crash.