At least 30 dead after high-speed trains collide in central Spain

Toledo — At least 30 people were killed on Wednesday when a high-speed train ran into the rear of another that had stopped on the line between Madrid and Seville, in what became the second major rail accident in Spain this year. Two carriages were knocked off the track.

The crash happened just after 9 a.m. between the towns of Mora and Orgaz in Toledo province, according to rail operator Adif, and involved a Renfe train and an Iryo train travelling in the same direction from the capital to Seville. A government spokesperson for the Castilla La Mancha region said two cars of the Iryo train derailed. Both trains were carrying hundreds of passengers.

The casualty count moved quickly through the day. Esther Padilla, spokeswoman for the Castilla La Mancha region, initially said authorities could confirm 10 deaths but warned “that number will surely rise”, the South China Morning Post reported. By later on Wednesday the regional government said the toll had risen to 30, according to The Guardian.

Footage broadcast by regional Castilla-La Mancha Television showed a derailed train with at least one carriage left on an elevated section of track. A passenger identified as Miguel, travelling in the rear car of one train, told COPE radio of hearing “a massive roar, a truly enormous thud that went on for 10 seconds”.

Adif suspended all traffic on the Madrid–Andalusia high-speed line, saying in a message on X that the suspension followed “a rear-end collision between two trains”. Manuel Galan, the mayor of Urda, near Toledo, said emergency services had asked him to prepare a sports hall to accommodate the injured, the Japan Times reported.

The cause of the collision remains undetermined. The regional government spokesperson said the cause and the number of injuries were still being established, and no official explanation has yet been given for why one train had stopped on the line or why the second struck it.

The next formal step to watch is the investigation into the crash, which will have to establish how two trains came to occupy the same stretch of track on one of Europe's busiest high-speed networks.