WorldPosted at: Oct 29 2026 8:16PM


Spain begins three day national mourning after high speed train crash kills 69

Urda, Oct 29 (UNI) Spain has begun three days of national mourning after a high-speed rail collision killed 69 people. Emergency teams continue searching the wreckage, hospitals treat injured passengers and families await news of missing relatives.
The collision occurred shortly before 9am on Wednesday, when a state-owned Renfe train and a privately operated Iryo service travelling from Madrid towards Andalucía collided on the same line near Urda, in Castilla-La Mancha. After the Iryo train stopped, the Renfe service struck its rear, forcing several carriages off the tracks.
Officials said 107 people required hospital treatment, including 15 who were seriously injured. By Thursday morning, 64 people had been reported missing by relatives. One more body was recovered overnight, taking the death toll to 69.
The disaster has raised fresh questions about safety on Spain's high-speed rail network, particularly after transport minister Óscar Puente said rear-end collisions were "highly unlikely" and suggested the crash may have resulted from human error under "inexplicable" circumstances.
Puente said the LZB signalling system, which automatically stops trains when the line ahead is occupied, failed at about 8.30am local time because of a computer malfunction. An estimated six trains were halted along a 63 km stretch of track.
Responsibility for monitoring the lines then fell to a 24-hour command centre in Madrid. Minutes after the malfunction, operators instructed at least two trains to resume normal operations despite a stop signal remaining in place, the minister said.
"It was the control centre, through its operators, that made the decision to resume traffic, under circumstances that, from our point of view, are inexplicable," Puente said. "Clearly, it was a wrong decision."
Emergency crews worked through the night to extricate victims from the wreckage, using cranes to lift twisted metal. Police deployed drones at daybreak to survey the site. Emiliano García-Page, the head of the Castilla-La Mancha regional government, said rescue teams did not expect to find further bodies in one overturned carriage, although body parts had been recovered and would need to be identified.
"Yesterday we experienced a catastrophe that without a doubt has left all of Spain in shock," García-Page said on Thursday. He added that 50 of the 110 people taken to hospitals in the region remained under treatment.
Prime minister Pedro Sánchez, speaking during a visit to the emergency command centre in Toledo, said authorities were working to establish the cause of the collision and strengthen railway safety.
"Every institution that is part of the state – from the smallest municipality to the government of Spain – is working day and night, not only to provide a response to the families of the victims, but also, of course, to uncover every last detail of this tragedy and to strengthen safety measures so that something like this never happens again," he said.
The collision occurred 10 months after another deadly crash on the same line near Adamuz, in Andalucía, killed 46 people and injured dozens. That incident also involved trains operated by Renfe and Iryo.
Spain's train drivers went ahead with a previously planned strike to demand greater investment in railway safety. The latest disaster was Europe's deadliest train accident since a derailment in Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain in 2013 killed 80 people.
The Guardia Civil has opened four offices in Madrid, Toledo, Córdoba and Seville where relatives can provide DNA samples to help identify victims. Blood donation centres have also been established in Castilla-La Mancha and Madrid.
A school in Urda, about 130km (80 miles) south of Madrid, has been converted into an information centre for relatives seeking news of loved ones. Red Cross teams have been providing psychological support to families gathered there.
Carmen García, a Red Cross psychologist, said difficult hours lay ahead as relatives processed the loss and uncertainty.
"We have people who are in shock, who haven't taken onboard what has happened, angry people, sad, worried people," she said. "The grieving will be complicated."
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