A high-speed train collision south of Madrid killed 68 people and injured more than 100 on Wednesday, making it one of Europe’s deadliest rail accidents this century. The impact left one train embedded into another, carriages tilted on an embankment, and debris scattered across the area. Authorities described the scene as chaotic, with rescue teams working through the night to recover bodies and clear wreckage.
Castilla-La Mancha’s regional leader, Emiliano Garcia-Page, confirmed the death toll, which had initially been reported as 64. He cautioned that more bodies might be found once recovery efforts concluded. Over 100 people were injured, with 15 in critical condition, according to regional officials. Pablo Mejia, a 42-year-old survivor, told reporters he had moved seats moments before the collision, suffering injuries to his head. “A very strong hit. It lasted a long time until it stopped, lots of people on the floor, on top of each other, seats ripped out, suitcases, a lot of chaos,” he recounted.
Manuel Ortiz, a 49-year-old local resident who assisted in transporting survivors from nearby Urda, described the aftermath as “horrific, horrible” and said it “smelled of an accident, of metal.”
The collision involved two trains: one operated by Renfe, Spain’s state railway, and another by Iryo, a private competitor. Transport Minister Oscar Puente explained that the Renfe train had restarted its journey despite a 69-kilometer section of track being closed due to a malfunction in the automatic control system. The control center, he said, resumed operations “in circumstances that, from our point of view, are inexplicable,” allowing the Renfe train to travel 25 kilometers before crashing into the stationary Iryo train at speeds potentially exceeding 200 kilometers per hour. Puente emphasized that operators had sufficient time to prevent the error but failed to act.
Read Also: Mercedes-Benz cuts 2026 profit forecast amid China sales slump
This disaster follows another high-speed rail collision in Spain this year. In January, a crash near Adamuz killed 46 people, raising concerns about safety in the country’s rapidly growing rail network. Spain’s system, the second-largest globally after China’s, transported nearly 26 million passengers between January and August, showing its importance as a national transportation hub.
The accident occurs weeks before Spain’s general election on November 29, where Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez faces criticism over rail safety. His Socialist party suspended campaign activities, while the opposition Popular Party demanded full transparency into the incident’s causes. Sanchez declared three days of national mourning, calling the repeated disasters “unacceptable.”
The Spanish royal household said on X it was “shocked and concerned”, conveying its support to the victims, their loved ones and the emergency services.
