Two passenger trains traveling from Madrid to Seville crashed in Toledo province on Wednesday morning. Officials confirmed 10 fatalities and warned the death toll would increase.
A high-speed passenger train struck the rear of another stopped train Wednesday morning in central Spain, derailing two carriages and killing at least 10 people, government officials said.
How the collision unfolded
The collision took place just after 9 a.m. local time (5 a.m. ET) on the route running south from Madrid to Seville, NBC News reported. Both trains were traveling in the same direction. According to Fox News, a train operated by Spain’s state-owned rail operator RENFE ran into the back of an IRYO train that had halted on the track.
Esther Padilla, spokeswoman for the Castilla La Mancha region, confirmed 10 people had died and noted that the fatality figure was expected to rise. The crash involved hundreds of riders, with 397 passengers traveling on the RENFE train and 147 passengers on board the IRYO train.
The collision derailed two cars belonging to the IRYO train. One carriage was shredded into fragments of metal, sending debris tumbling down a gravel slope in a flat area surrounded by fields. The outlets noted different locations for the crash site within Toledo province: Fox News placed the scene between the towns of Urda and Los Yébenes, while NBC News cited state rail infrastructure company ADIF locating the accident between Mora and Orgaz.
Emergency rescue and travel disruptions
Emergency responders, police officers, firefighters and a military emergency brigade traveled to the site to search the wreckage. Spanish Health Minister Mónica García told state broadcaster TVE that rescue workers were focusing on retrieving survivors and bodies from the two most damaged carriages, with wounded passengers taken to regional hospitals. “It was a high-speed impact, so we are expecting this to be a tragedy,” García said.
In nearby Urda, Mayor Manuel Galán told TVE that civil protection officials asked the town hall to prepare a sports pavilion to shelter and treat injured people. Private rail operator IRYO, an Italian-owned firm, said in a statement that it had activated its security protocols and was working closely with authorities.
ADIF suspended train traffic across the high-speed route between Madrid, Ciudad Real and the southern region of Andalusia. The shutdown halted transit across the corridor and left passengers waiting at Santa Justa station in Seville.
Political reaction and recent safety record
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez canceled his official schedule to concentrate on the disaster. Sánchez, who faces a national election next month, posted on X that he was dismayed by the crash and offered sympathy to the victims and their families. Castilla La Mancha Regional President Emiliano García-Page wrote on X that he was heading to the collision scene.
Wednesday’s disaster marks the second fatal railway accident in Spain this year. In January, 45 people died in southern Spain when a train derailed and struck an oncoming train in a crash that also involved RENFE and IRYO. That collision was Spain’s deadliest since an accident in 2013 that killed 80 people. According to the European Union, Spain possesses the largest high-speed rail network in Europe for trains traveling faster than 155 mph, spanning more than 1,900 miles of track.
