A Kiwi, Alison Darby, who hailed from Christchurch and went to Santiago, Spain to attend the Christian pilgrim festival honouring St James, shared with onenews.co.nz her actual experience of the city after the Spain train crash.

Ms Darby said that before the accident took place, the people were excitedly waiting for the light show that highlights the festival.

But after the train crash was announced and that the festival was cancelled due to the accident, the entire city was silenced. Some people sat silently as they absorb the news while others left the festival site immediately.

"The street entertainment, music, bands, dancing and singing has disappeared and the Plaza stage behind the Cathedral is quiet."

Within the night, all decorations of the festivals were removed and flags were at half-mast in the morning.

Some establishments, including museums and art galleries, closed for the day as way to pay respect both for the victims and their families.

St James Day is a widely celebrated festival in Santiago, and tourists came from different parts of the globe. Ms Darby said that after the incident, tourists felt guilty of continuing their celebration.

"For some this is a lifetime journey and they feel guilty if they celebrate."

Meanwhile, an actual victim and survivor of the Spain train crash, Elder Stephen Ward, shared his experience with CNN.

Mr Ward is an 18-year-old Mormon from Utah who travelled to Spain to start his two-year missionary work in the country.

He told CNN that the train was derailed when it passed a sharp curve. Everything happened so fast, the last thing he remembered was that he was writing in his journal and then he was covered in blood.

"We had been going around some pretty sharp turns. We finally came to one more sharp turn, and the train, like, completely lift up. It was leaning sideways. It felt a roller coaster."

He looked around the train, some passengers were puzzled while others were relaxed, that was when the other set of wheels left the rails.

Mr Ward said that he flew out of his seat and then experienced total black out.

When his consciousness was back, he thought he was just dreaming, "The first thing I remember was the little circle of light that was the door.

"We saw a scene from Dante..." a witness told The Independent.

Isidro Castano was attending an association meeting when the he caught sight of the train crash.

Mr Castano said, "Carriages were burning, there was thick, black mushroom cloud and we could hear people screaming. The emergency services had yet to turn up, so we struggled to get the passengers out and aid them on the ground. Some were bleeding, some dead."

Francisco Fernandez, a civil defence worker who was trained to respond to such incidents said, "It was awful. There were people strewn all over the place, cut to pieces. Some without legs, some headless. We are not finished yet. We will keep working until the job is done."

Sadly, a man who refused to be named, shared that he was on his way to a relative's house for a Christening, but then he found out that another relative had died in the train crash.

The man stood sadly at the victim's support centre waiting for the remains of his relative, "I came here for a Christening and now I am going to a funeral."

Watch the CCTV footage of the Spain train crash here: