Spain train crash: 68 killed after 2 high-speed trains collide
What's the story
At least 68 people have died and 80 others have been injured after two high-speed trains collided in Spain's Toledo province on Wednesday morning, according to the BBC. The state rail infrastructure authority confirmed that services between Madrid, Ciudad Real, and Andalucía had been suspended "following a rear-end collision between two trains." Multiple reports said it was a southbound Renfe AVE train that rear-ended a stationary Iryo train on the Madrid-Seville line, sending carriages down an embankment.
Crash aftermath
Renfe train authorized to continue despite active red signal
In an update, Spain's Transport Minister Oscar Puente said the crash occurred after the Renfe train was authorized to continue its journey despite there being an active red signal because of the stationary train on the track ahead.
Puente told reporters in Madrid that the red signal was issued owing to a computer communications failure that automatically stopped traffic and that an erroneous decision was made to resume the Renfe train, violating protocol.
PM
Emergency services are working on the ground: PM
Describing the crash as a "serious" incident, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he is in constant contact with the Minister of Transport and with the president of Castilla-La Mancha.
"Emergency services are working on the ground to assist those affected and ensure their safety, in coordination with all the involved administrations. My affection, solidarity, and support to all the victims and their families," he said.
Details
Over 500 passengers together
Esther Padilla, the spokesperson of the regional government Castilla and La Mancha, said one train was carrying 146 passengers and an infant, while the other carried 397 passengers.
Images shared on X show carriages on their side in a ditch.
A survivor, Jesus Jeronimo (54), told El Pais, "We thought we had derailed. Then, little by little, we got out and saw that our train was tilted. There were many injured people and a lot of people shaken up."
Crash
Second deadly high-speed rail crash this year
The collision comes less than a year after an accident between high-speed trains belonging to the same operators on the same line that killed 46 people in January.
In that incident, a train derailed and collided with another near Adamuz in the province of Córdoba.
Government sources told El País that Wednesday's crash could be worse than the Adamuz rail disaster in January.