At least 64 people were killed and 80 injured when two high-speed trains collided in central Spain on Wednesday, sending carriages careering off the tracks, in the second major accident on the same line in less than a year.
“We heard a massive roar, a truly enormous thud that went on for 10 seconds, as if the train were about to derail,” one passenger, Miguel, told Spain’s COPE radio, adding that he was traveling with several colleagues in the rear car of one of the trains.
“Through the right-hand window, we could see a wrecked train — I imagine it must have been the other one,” he added.
Pictures showed several carriages lying on their sides next to the tracks and others twisted at angles, their wheels sheared off. Debris was strewn around the scene of the accident in the countryside in the province of Toledo.
As rescue teams continued to search through the wreckage of the derailed carriages, the Castilla-La Mancha regional government said 64 people had been killed, according to The Associated Press.
Earlier, the region’s President Emiliano García-Page said that at least 80 people were injured. Together the two trains were carrying more than 500 passengers.
Locals rushed to the scene of the accident, which has prompted a major national emergency response and raised questions about the safety and security of Spain’s high-speed rail infrastructure, which had previously been hailed as among the most sophisticated in Europe.
Esther Padilla, spokeswoman for the Castilla La Mancha region, told state broadcaster TVE that the trains were heading in the same direction from Madrid to Seville when one ran into the tail of the other, which had stopped on the line.
She added that some 397 people had been traveling on the state-owned Renfe train and 147 people on the private rail company Iryo train.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said he was “deeply saddened” by the crash and said emergency services were working to assist those affected. “My heartfelt sympathy, solidarity, and support go out to all the victims and their families,” he wrote on X.
His sentiments were echoed by Spain’s royal family who said they shared “in the grief of the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives.”
Spanish political parties said Wednesday they would briefly pause campaigning ahead of next month’s general election. Spain’s football federation also said it would postpone some of its Copa del Rey soccer fixtures, following the collision.
The full scale of the disaster remains unclear but officials said an emergency phone line had been set up for families of the victims; local blood banks had also made appeals for donations.
Manuel Galan, the mayor of the nearby municipality of Urda, said he had been asked by emergency services to prepare a sports hall to accommodate the injured.
Eduarda, a passenger on the Iryo train, told Spain’s Cadena SER radio that she felt a strong impact that threw her forward and she initially thought the train had made an emergency stop.
After climbing down an embankment to safety, she said she saw part of the train hanging down the slope and a fire in one carriage. “I saw dead people,” she added.
Emergency responders, including a helicopter, police and ambulances, arrived within about 20 minutes, she said.
The crash comes 10 months after a deadly collision in January between high-speed trains run by the same operators, Renfe and Iryo, on the same line between Madrid to Seville.
That accident left 45 people dead in southern Spain when a train jumped the track and hit an oncoming train.
The January crash was the country’s deadliest since a 2013 crash that killed 80 people.
Spain has the largest high-speed rail network in Europe for trains moving more than 155 mph, with more than 1,900 miles of track, according to the European Union.
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