At least 64 people have been killed and dozens seriously injured after two high-speed trains collided in central Spain, in the country’s deadliest rail disaster since 2013, prompting a major rescue operation and renewed scrutiny of its rail infrastructure.
The collision occurred near Urda, south of Madrid, involving a Renfe train and an Iryo service operating on the Madrid to Seville route, according to rail operator Adif. More than 500 passengers were travelling on the two trains, a spokesperson for the regional government said.
The Castilla La Mancha regional government confirmed the updated death toll, warning that the number of fatalities could rise as emergency workers continue searching the wreckage. At least 80 people were reported injured, including about 50 in serious condition and 15 in critical condition, according to regional officials.
Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, said he was ‘shocked by the serious train accident’ and was in constant contact with the transport minister. He was travelling to the crash area to support emergency teams and those affected by the disaster.
‘The priority is to attend to the victims and ensure the maximum coordination between administrations,’ the Spanish government said in a statement.
Survivors described a violent impact that threw passengers from their seats, scattered luggage and left carriages badly damaged. Roberto Gómez, a Spanish journalist who was travelling on one of the trains, told Onda Cero radio: ‘The impact was terrible. You can imagine, the carriage is destroyed. All the suitcases are all over the wrecked carriage.’
Gómez, who sustained minor injuries, said passengers helped people suffering serious injuries to their chests and ribs before climbing through a window to escape the wreckage.
Another passenger, Sebastián Herrero, told Spanish newspaper El Mundo that the impact threw him into the seats in front of him. He described seeing passengers with broken noses and arms as smoke filled the carriage.
Emergency services deployed ambulances, helicopters and rescue teams to the site, while injured passengers were transported to nearby hospitals and facilities in Madrid. Blood donation centres in Madrid and Toledo appealed for urgent donations in anticipation of increased demand for medical care.
The scale of the disaster places it among Spain’s worst rail accidents in decades. In July 2013, 80 people died when a train derailed near Santiago de Compostela in north-western Spain.
The latest collision has also interrupted the country’s political campaign ahead of the 29 November general election. Sánchez’s Socialist Party and the conservative People’s Party suspended scheduled campaign events, with opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo saying the priority was to care for victims.
Santiago Abascal, leader of the far-right Vox party, continued campaigning while criticising the state of Spain’s infrastructure. He blamed what he described as the ‘deterioration of infrastructure and institutions in Spain’ on the current government. Authorities have not yet confirmed what caused the collision.
Spain’s rail network, long regarded as one of Europe’s strongest high-speed systems, is likely to face renewed questions over safety and infrastructure once investigators establish how the two trains came to collide.
For now, emergency workers remain focused on recovering victims, treating survivors and identifying those killed, as families wait for news of relatives who were aboard the trains.