A high-speed train slammed into the rear of another train that had stopped, derailing two cars and killing at least 30 people on Wednesday in central Spain, AFP reported, citing the regional government.
Earlier on Wednesday, Esther Padilla, spokeswoman for the Castilla-La Mancha region, had said authorities could confirm 10 deaths earlier, but added that “that number will surely rise.”
It was the second major train accident in Spain this year.
Spain’s rail system operator ADIF said the crash occurred on Wednesday morning in the province of Toledo. Rail service was suspended between Madrid, Ciudad Real and Andalusia.
Padilla told state broadcaster TVE that the accident involved two high-speed trains carrying hundreds of passengers and heading in the same direction from Madrid to Seville in southwestern Spain. One ran into the rear of the other while it was stopped, knocking two of its cars off the track. She said the cause of the crash was not known.
The crash occurred on a flat stretch surrounded by fields between the towns of Urda and Los Yébenes. One car was shredded into pieces of metal and other material, scattering debris down a gravel slope.
Spanish Health Minister Mónica García told TVE that emergency workers were focusing on rescuing survivors and recovering bodies from the two most damaged train cars. She said the injured were being taken to different hospitals in the area.
“It was a high-speed impact, so we are expecting this to be a tragedy,” García 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. Trains from the two companies were also involved in a deadly crash in January.
Padilla said 397 passengers were on the RENFE train and 147 on the IRYO train.
IRYO, an Italian-owned company, said in a statement that it had “activated its security protocols and is closely working with authorities.”
The mayor of the nearby town of Urda, Manuel Galán, told Spanish state broadcaster TVE that civil protection authorities had asked his town hall to prepare a sports pavilion to attend to injured passengers.
A military emergency brigade was deployed to assist emergency services, firefighters and police at the crash site.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez cancelled his agenda to focus on the crash. He wrote on X that he was “dismayed by the serious train accident in Toledo”.
“Emergency services are working on site to attend to the affected passengers,” Sánchez wrote. “All my thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
The regional president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, wrote on X that he was on his way to the crash site.
In January, 45 people died in southern Spain when a train jumped the track and hit an oncoming train. The crash was the deadliest in Spain since a 2013 accident that killed 80 people. The January incident shook confidence in the European country’s extensive high-speed rail network.
