Spanish train crash leaves 68 dead, PM Sanchez declares 3 days of mourning

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Some 56 people who had been taken to hospital after the crash have now been discharged, the Health Ministry of Castilla-La Mancha region said, as cited by Spanish media.

This left 53 people still in hospital, according to the ministry.

European Union flags have been lowered to half-mast outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels as a marker of European solidarity.

The Commission said the flags were lowered after Spain declared three days of official mourning.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced the decision earlier this morning when he visited the crash site near Urda.

Wednesday's crash, which killed at least 68 people according to the latest updates, is the deadliest train disaster in the EU since 2013.

At least 107 people remain admitted across hospitals in the region of Castilla-La Mancha following Wednesday's train crash, regional emergency services said in an update posted to X.

According to El Pais, of those, 18 were in critical condition.

The crash occurred close to the town of Urda, which is in the region of Castilla-La Mancha.

At least 68 people were killed when a high-speed train slammed into a train that had stopped on the tracks.

The accident comes only nine months after a derailed train in the south of Spain led to 46 deaths.

At least 68 people have died after a high-speed publicly-run Renfe train collided into the back of a privately-run Iryo train that was stopped farther along the tracks on the line between Madrid and the southern city of Seville.

The trains crashed just after 9 a.m. on Wednesday, between the towns of Mora and Orgaz, near Toledo. About 540 people were on the two trains, local officials said.

Wednesday's accident was the second train disaster to have taken place in Spain this year and the deadliest train crash in Europe since 2013.

The train crash earlier this year in Spain also took place on the same line, with the collision near Cordoba having killed 46 people in January.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a televised address from near the accident site that "all of Spain" was in mourning.

He said the "terrible tragedy" would be investigated and vowed to address any failures that came to light.

Spain's Transportation Minister Oscar Puente said the crash resulted from an "inexplicable" decision by operators to have the high-speed train continue on its journey after a computer error had triggered a red signal closing down the stretch of track.

All major parties, apart from the far-right Vox party, cancelled their campaigning on Wednesday out of respect for the victims. Spaniards are set to head to the polls on November 29.

The deadly train collision on Wednesday was the second high-speed rail crash this year. Spain's high-speed rail network, the largest in Europe, had gone without any fatal crashes since it opened in 1992. But there have also been fatal collisions on other parts of the network this year:

An Iryo train traveling from Malaga to Madrid derailed near Adamuz, in southern Spain, and collided with an oncoming Renfe train heading to Huelva.

46 people were killed and more than 100 injured. Investigators' preliminary findings indicated that a fracture in the rail appeared to predate the derailment.

A commuter train crashed near Gelida, outside Barcelona, after a retaining wall collapsed onto the tracks during heavy rain. 

One person was killed and 41 were injured, according to the Spanish government.

A passenger train traveling from Madrid to Badajoz struck a car at a railroad crossing near Talavera de la Reina, in Toledo province.

The car's driver was killed. None of the 206 passengers aboard the train were injured, according to regional emergency services. 

Two high-speed trains, both traveling from Madrid to Seville, collided near Urda, in Toledo province, killing at least 68 people and injuring dozens more, regional authorities said.

Spain's football federation (RFEF) has suspended over 20 Spanish cup (Copa del Rey) fixtures scheduled for Wednesday out of respect for the victims of the deadly train crash earlier in the day.

"As a sign of respect and solidarity with all the victims of the tragic train accident … the RFEF has suspended the 24 matches corresponding to the first round of the Copa del Rey initially scheduled to be played during this afternoon and evening," the RFEF said in a statement.

Five top division teams (Levante, Alaves, Valencia, Celta Vigo and Real Betis) were due to play their first-round matches on Wednesday — but Spanish giants Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona aren't due to enter the competition until the round-of-32 in December.

Several Spanish football clubs have expressed condolences and solidarity on social media.

"FC Barcelona expresses its deepest condolences to the victims of the serious railway accident," wrote the Catalonia-based team. "The club wishes to convey its support and solidarity to the families and friends of the victims and to wish all those injured a speedy recovery."

Real Madrid also published a statement expressing "deepest sorrow" and extending condolences.

As it stands, Thursday's Copa del Rey fixtures (featuring La Liga sides Athletic Bilbao, Osasuna, Deportivo A Coruna, Getafe and FC Sevilla) are still set to go ahead.

New dates for the postponed Wednesday games have not yet been announced.

Spain will observe three days of mourning after the death of at least 68 people in a high-speed train collision on Wednesday, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has announced.

"All of Spain is in mourning," he said from the scene of the crash in the central region of Castilla-La Mancha, adding that it was "not acceptable for a country like Spain" to suffer two such disasters in the same year.

The Renfe high-speed train that crashed into another stationary train had been told to continue its journey "as normal" despite the fact that all trains on the section of track in Toledo province had been told to stop, Spain's Transport Minister Oscar Puente has said.

Puente told a press conference at the ADIF control center in Madrid that the control system at the train station in Urda had failed due to a computer error.

That failure meant that a 63-kilometer section of track had no control system, which triggered an automatic stop, or "red signal," for all rail traffic on the parts of the track affected.

Operators at the control center ADIF, the company that is responsible for managing and maintaining Spain's railway infrastructure, took over communications.

"At 8:36 a.m. the Renfe train was told to resume its journey 'with normality'," Puente explained, a decision he described as "inexplicable."

He said that between that time and the moment of impact at 8:53, the Renfe train had traveled about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles), likely reaching a speed of over 100 kilometers (60 miles) per hour.

During the press conference, Puente refused to respond to questions about whether he would resign in the wake of the crash, saying his attention was on clarifying the circumstances that led to the crash and supporting the victims.

Senior European Union leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Kaja Kallas have sent their condolences to the victims of the high-speed rail crash and their families.

European Commission President von der Leyen said "Europe mourns with you."

Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign policy and security chief, said she had spoken to Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares to convey her "profound condolences following the tragic accident."

"Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives. I wish a swift recovery to the injured and strength to all those affected," Kallas said.

European Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho, meanwhile, said the bloc was "ready to help Spain if needed."

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is traveling to Urda, where two high-speed trains collided.

At least 64 people have been killed, while more than 80 people have been injured in one of the worst rail accidents in Spain's history.

In a post on X, the Moncloa Palace, the prime minister's official residence, said Sanchez was heading to Urda to "support the work of the emergency teams and to convey his support to those affected and their families."

"The priority is to attend to the victims and ensure the maximum coordination between administrations," it added.

Spain's royal family has issued a statement following the deadly train crash in Toledo.

In a post on X, the royals said they are "deeply saddened and distressed" over the accident.

"We share the grief of the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives, and we send our heartfelt thoughts to the injured and everyone affected."

Spain's King Felipe VI, meanwhile, told reporters in Valencia that he was cutting short his military training exercise at the Jaime I Military Base to return to Madrid to monitor the emergency response to the accident.

Felipe added that he had already been in touch with the regional Castilla-La Mancha president.

A train operated by the private Iryo consortium was reportedly told to stop by rail infrastructure manager ADIF due to a faulty signal, a person briefed on the disaster told the Reuters news agency.

Government officials have not confirmed what caused the train crash, and neither Renfe nor Iryo have commented on the cause.

DW has spoken to Nick Kingsley, the executive editor of the Railway Gazette International, about what might have caused the crash, the second fatal accident to hit Spain's high-speed rail network this year.

Kingsley described it as "a dark day for the Spanish rail industry" and said there would be "profound questions asked" as to how this accident occurred.

While he cautioned that it was still too early to speculate, Kingsley said: "The key point with high-speed railway is you design safety systems and especially signalling and train control systems such that the trains do not crash. This should never happen."

He said investigators would be looking into whether there are any similarities with the fatal accident in January.

"The fact that these two accidents happened in the same year when we had 30+ years without a single fatal accident on a high-speed rail network anywhere in the world, to now have this happen twice in one year in the same country is quite shocking," Kingsley told DW.

"If reports that one crashed into the back of the other are confirmed, that will raise questions about the protection of those sections of track," Kingsley said.

He explained that the "fundamental principle of railway operation is that you have a signalling system that is designed to prevent two trains from occupying the same section of track. This is a fundamental tenet of railway operation."

Kingsley added that it will take a long time, possibly several weeks or even months, "to establish a definitive sequence of events."

The death toll from the accident has risen to at least 64, a spokesperson for Castilla-La Mancha's regional president, Emiliano Garcia-Page, has said.

At least 58 people were injured, many of them seriously, officials have confirmed.

The toll has risen several times during the day, with the possibility remaining that it could still go up.

The president of the regional Castilla-La Mancha government, Emiliano Garcia-Page, has told reporters at the scene of the accident that at least 80 people were lightly or moderately injured as a result of the crash.

"There are also fewer who were seriously injured, so we unfortunately do expect more deaths," Garcia-Page said.

He added that the priority is to treat the injured and move them to hospital.

"We are in the heart of the emergency, so the priority is to attend to the injured, the dead and the victims' families," he said.

Help is arriving from neighboring regions, the president said, as he urged people to remain calm and to allow the emergency services to deal with the accident.

He also refused to speculate on what caused the accident.

"I'm not the one who should comment on the causes, that should come from judicial authorities. The judicial authorities should be the ones to establish the causes of this incident," he said.