A high-speed train slammed into the rear of another train that had stopped, derailing two cars and killing at least 68 people on Wednesday in central Spain, authorities said.
The central Government’s office for Castilla La Mancha confirmed the death toll had risen. The regional president of Castilla La Mancha, Emiliano Garcia-Page, had said at least 80 people were injured and that the death toll “will surely rise” as rescue workers continue to search in the wreckage for survivors and bodies.
It was the second major train accident in Spain this year. Spain’s rail system operator ADIF said the crash occurred Wednesday morning in the province of Toledo. The accident was between two high-speed trains carrying hundreds of passengers and heading in the same direction from the capital Madrid to Seville in southwestern Spain, according to Esther Padilla, spokesperson for the Castilla La Mancha region.
One ran into the tail of the other that had stopped, knocking two of its cars off the track. Padilla said that the cause of the crash was not known. Rail service was suspended between Madrid, Ciudad Real and Andalusia. The crash, which occurred in a flat stretch surrounded by olive fields in between the towns of Urda and Los Yebenes, left one car shredded into bits of metal and other material, scattering debris down a gravel slope.
Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said that emergency workers were focusing on rescuing survivors and bodies from the two most damaged train cars. She said that the injured are being sent to different hospitals in the area. “It was a high-speed impact, so we are expecting this to be a tragedy,” Garcia said.
The accident involved a train from Spain’s state-owned RENFE company and the private rail company IRYO. It appeared the RENFE train rammed the IRYO train, Spanish media reported. Garcia-Page said 24 died in the RENFE train, and six in the IRYO one. Padilla said that 397 passengers were in the RENFE train and 147 passengers in the
IRYO train.
Trains from those two companies were also involved in a deadly crash in January. IRYO, an Italian-owned company, said in a statement that it has “activated its security protocols and is closely working with authorities.”
The mayor of the nearby town of Urda, Manuel Galan told TVE that civil protection authorities had asked his town hall to prepare a sports pavilion to attend to injured passengers.