Two high-speed trains collide in Spain, killing at least 68 people
Two high-speed trains crashed on the Madrid to Andalusia line, leaving at least 68 people dead and prompting three days of national mourning.
At least 68 people have been killed after two high-speed trains collided on the line linking Madrid with Andalusia in southern Spain, prompting the government to declare three days of national mourning. The second major rail disaster in the country this year has also left scores of people injured, and relatives are desperately seeking news of their loved ones.
The trains, one operated by Spain's state-owned Renfe and the other by the private company Iryo, were travelling in the same direction on Wednesday morning. After the Iryo train came to a halt, the Renfe service slammed into its rear, knocking several carriages off the track near the town of Urda. The primary account describes carriages leaving the tracks and rolling down an embankment, and emergency services combed through the wreckage overnight.
Rescue teams have been searching for people trapped in the twisted metal, a search that has been described as frantic. The Civil Guard has set up clinics where relatives can provide DNA samples to help identify the victims, a process that will take time given the scale of the damage. Families gathering near the site have been waiting for any word on those still unaccounted for.
Investigators have turned their attention to the control centre. Staff there have been questioned over what has been described as an inexplicable human error, a line of inquiry that will be central to establishing how two trains travelling in the same direction came into collision. The question of how a train was able to be struck from behind on a line of this kind is expected to dominate the early stages of the investigation.
The crash has intensified scrutiny of rail safety in Spain just weeks before a national election. Commentators have pointed out that this is the second deadly high-speed collision in the country this year, raising questions about how the network is monitored and managed. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has declared the mourning period, under which flags are to be flown at half-mast and public mourning observed across the country.
The line between Madrid and Andalusia is one of the busiest routes on Spain's high-speed network, carrying large numbers of passengers daily between the capital and the south. Spain has long promoted its high-speed rail system as among the most advanced in Europe, which makes the disaster a stark reminder of the human cost of any failure in signalling and operations. For many families, the immediate concern remains identifying and reaching their relatives, while the wider national debate turns to how a fault of this kind could occur on such a modern network.
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