Spain has declared three days of national mourning after a major rail collision in which at least 68 people were killed and dozens more injured. The incident has been described as one of the most serious rail accidents in modern European history.
Emergency services worked throughout the night, aided by powerful floodlights, to cut through the metal sections of the carriages and recover the victims. Authorities said that some of those who died have still not been identified.
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The accident occurred on Wednesday morning, when a train traveling from Madrid to Seville collided with another train that had stopped on the tracks. Investigators are trying to determine the circumstances and causes of the collision.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that “all of Spain is in mourning.” He said that many lives had been destroyed, families had been torn apart and the pain was immense.
According to the Interior Ministry, hundreds of officers and emergency workers have been deployed at the scene. Drones and helicopters are also being used to search for victims and remove the wreckage.
The private company Iryo’s train, carrying 147 passengers, had stopped on the tracks because of a computer malfunction, Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente said.
According to the minister, when the system malfunctions, control of train movements is transferred to a center operating around the clock in Madrid. However, that center made a decision Puente described as “inexplicable,” instructing the trains to continue without speed restrictions.
Audio recordings of conversations between rail controllers in Madrid and train drivers appear to show that one train was allowed to continue along the route even though another train ahead of it had stopped.
Iryo said its train was hit from behind by a train operated by the state-owned company Renfe, which was carrying 397 passengers. The collision was so powerful that several carriages ended up on a slope beside the railway.
Witnesses described shocking scenes inside the trains: bloodied passengers, people trapped in their seats, carriages filled with smoke and one that caught fire.
After the incident, relatives continued searching through the night for information about the people who had been on the two trains. Spain’s Civil Guard opened offices in Madrid, Toledo, Seville and Cordoba to register reports of missing people.
“The main priority is identifying the missing people and collecting DNA samples so that their relatives can be identified,” the Civil Guard said in a post on the social network X.
In Toledo, near the site of the accident, residents observed a minute of silence for the victims. In Brussels, European Union flags were flown at half-mast in solidarity with Spain during the days of mourning.
Prime Minister Sanchez said it was unacceptable for Spain to face two serious rail accidents within the same year. In January, another collision near Cordoba caused the deaths of 46 people. That incident also occurred on the same railway line, but farther south.
Most political parties suspended their campaigns for the upcoming elections after the tragedy. The far-right Vox party was the exception. Its leader, Santiago Abascal, said the political force would not take part in what he called an attempt to use the mourning as a way to shut down debates over criticism of the rail infrastructure.
Around 1,500 people gathered overnight outside the Transport Ministry in Madrid, according to Spanish broadcaster TVE. Protesters mainly called for the resignations of Prime Minister Sanchez and Minister Puente.
Police used tear gas to disperse the crowd after some participants threw bottles and flares. According to reports, no one was injured or arrested during the protests.
Train drivers are expected to hold their announced strike on Thursday. The Spanish train drivers’ union, Semaf, said the protest would be held “in defense of rail safety.”
People’s Party leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo said Spain had the right to find out what was happening with its infrastructure.
Wednesday’s accident is the most serious recorded in Spain since 2013, when 80 people were killed in a rail collision on the outskirts of Santiago de Compostela, in the northwest of the country.
