Broken windows on a train are photographed at the site of a high-speed train collision in Adamuz, southern Spain, on Monday. Manu Fernandez - The Associated Press.

By IAIN SULLIVAN, JOSEPH WILSON AND SUMAN NAISHADHAM | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ADAMUZ, Spain - Regional Spanish officials said Monday that at least 40 people are confirmed dead in a high-speed rail collision the previous night in the country's south when the tail end of a train jumped the track, causing another train speeding past in the opposite direction to derail.

Juanma Moreno, the president of Andalusia, the southern Spanish region where the accident happened, confirmed the new death toll in an afternoon press conference. Efforts to recover the bodies from the two wrecked train cars continued, he added.

The impact tossed the second train's lead carriages off the track, sending them plummeting down a 13-foot slope. Some bodies were found hundreds of feet from the crash site, Moreno said earlier in the day, describing the wreckage as a "mass of twisted metal" with bodies likely still to be found inside.

Authorities are also focusing on attending hundreds of distraught family members and have asked for them to provide DNA samples to help identify victims.

The crash took place Sunday at 7:45 p.m. when the tail end of a train carrying 289 passengers on the route from Malaga to the capital, Madrid, went off the rails. It slammed into an incoming train traveling from Madrid to Huelva, another southern Spanish city, according to rail operator Adif.

The head of the second train, which was carrying nearly 200 passengers, took the brunt of the impact, Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente said. That collision knocked its first two carriages off the track. Puente said that it appeared the largest number of the deaths occurred in those carriages.

Authorities said all the survivors had been rescued in the early morning.

The accident shook a nation which leads Europe in high-speed train mileage and takes pride in a network that is considered at the cutting edge of rail transport.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez declared three days of national mourning for the victims of the crash.

"Today is a day of pain for all of Spain," Sanchez said on a visit to Adamuz, a village near the accident site, where many locals helped emergency services handle the influx of distraught and hurt passengers overnight.

Moreno, the regional leader, said Monday morning that emergency services were still searching for bodies.

"Here at ground zero, when you look at this mass of twisted iron, you see the violence of the impact," Moreno said. "The impact was so incredibly violent that we have found bodies hundreds of meters away."

Video released by the Civil Guard showed the worst-hit carriages shredded open, train seats cast on the gravel packing under the tracks. One carriage lay on its side, bent around a large concrete pillar, with debris scattered around the area.

Passengers reported climbing out of smashed windows, with some using emergency hammers to break the glass.

Andalusia's regional emergency services said 41 people remained hospitalized, 12 ofwhom were in intensive care units. Another 81 passengers were discharged by late Monday afternoon, authorities said.