Barcelona: A high-speed train slammed into the rear of another train that had stopped, derailing two cars and killing at least 30 people Wednesday in central Spain, according to local media.
Spanish authorities initially reported 10 deaths, but Esther Padilla, spokeswoman for the Castilla La Mancha region, added “that number will surely rise.”
Spanish state-owned news agency EFE and other media reported later that the death toll had risen to at least 30.
It was the second major train accident in Spain this year.
Spain’s rail system operator ADIF said the crash occurred Wednesday morning in the province of Toledo. Rail service was suspended between Madrid, Ciudad Real and Andalusia.
Padilla told state broadcaster TVE that the accident was between two high-speed trains carrying hundreds of passengers and heading in the same direction from the capital Madrid to Seville in southwestern Spain. One ran into the tail of the other that had stopped, knocking two of its cars off the track. She said the cause of the crash was not known.
The crash, which occurred in a flat stretch surrounded by fields in between the towns of Urda and Los Yebenes, left one car shredded into bits of metal and other material, scattering debris down a gravel slope.
Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia told TVE that emergency workers were focusing on rescuing survivors and bodies from the two most damaged train cars. She said that the injured are being sent to different hospitals in the area.
“It was a high-speed impact, so we are expecting this to be a tragedy,” Garcia said.
The accident involved a train from Spain’s state-owned RENFE company and the private rail company IRYO. It appeared the RENFE train rammed the IRYO train, Spanish media reported. Trains from those two companies were also involved in a deadly crash in January.
Padilla said that 397 passengers were in the RENFE train and 147 passengers in the IRYO train.
IRYO, an Italian-owned company, said in a statement that it has “activated its security protocols and is closely working with authorities.”
The mayor of the nearby town of Urda, Manuel Galan, told Spanish state broadcaster TVE that civil protection authorities had asked his town hall to prepare a sports pavilion to attend to injured passengers.
A military emergency brigade was deployed to help emergency services, firefighters and police to the crash site.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez cancelled his agenda to focus on the crash. He wrote on X that he was “dismayed by the serious train accident in Toledo.”
“Emergency services are working on site to attend to the affected passengers,” wrote Sanchez, who faces a national election next month. “All my thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
The regional president of Castilla La Mancha, Emiliano Garcia-Page, wrote on X that he was on his way to the crash site.
In January, 45 people died in southern Spain when a train jumped the track and hit an oncoming train. The crash was the deadliest in Spain since a 2013 crash that killed 80 people. The January incident shook the confidence the European country has in its extensive high-speed rail network.
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