The transport minister said a judge would investigate controllers’ actions, including authorizing a train to proceed at high speed though another was stalled in front of it.

© Oscar Del Pozo/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Pedro Sánchez vows to investigate crash that killed 69 people – and rebuild public confidence

• Europe live – latest updates

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has admitted “trust in high-speed rail has been broken” after Wednesday’s train collision that killed at least 69 people, injured more than 100 and prompted a national debate on the safety of the country’s rail network.

Sánchez said Spain was “working tirelessly” to provide information as quickly as possible to the families of the victims – who include people from at least 23 different foreign countries – adding his government was committed to finding what had caused the country’s second deadly train collision this year.

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© Photograph: Óscar del Pozo/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Óscar del Pozo/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Óscar del Pozo/AFP/Getty Images

Pedro Sánchez vows to investigate crash that killed 69 people – and rebuild public confidence

• Europe live – latest updates

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has admitted “trust in high-speed rail has been broken” after Wednesday’s train collision that killed at least 69 people, injured more than 100 and prompted a national debate on the safety of the country’s rail network.

Sánchez said Spain was “working tirelessly” to provide information as quickly as possible to the families of the victims – who include people from at least 23 different foreign countries – adding his government was committed to finding what had caused the country’s second deadly train collision this year.

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© Photograph: Óscar del Pozo/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Óscar del Pozo/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Óscar del Pozo/AFP/Getty Images

Some 69 people have been confirmed dead but the toll may rise further, with at least 70 people reported missing

Peunte begins by paying tribute to all affected by the incident.

He says that “at present, evidence points to a failure within Adif’s command and control centre,” but adds that investigators are still looking “to clarify what exactly happened.” He says he still has confidence in the system.

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© Photograph: Manu Fernández/AP

© Photograph: Manu Fernández/AP

© Photograph: Manu Fernández/AP

This blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here

Peunte begins by paying tribute to all affected by the incident.

He says that “at present, evidence points to a failure within Adif’s command and control centre,” but adds that investigators are still looking “to clarify what exactly happened.” He says he still has confidence in the system.

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© Photograph: Manu Fernández/AP

© Photograph: Manu Fernández/AP

© Photograph: Manu Fernández/AP

Next month’s poll no longer the contest it was, as Pedro Sánchez finds himself forced to defend government’s safety record

One of the most dependable cliches of contemporary Spanish politics is that it never pays to bet against Pedro Sánchez. Time and time again – as leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) and as prime minister – Sánchez has shown an almost preternatural ability to profit from adversity, and to confound expectations and wrongfoot his opponents.

But next month’s snap general election, called by Sánchez after rightwing and far-right parties voted down the housing reforms his coalition government had announced in response to angry protests, may suddenly not be the contest it once was.

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© Photograph: Sergio R Moreno/GTRES/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Sergio R Moreno/GTRES/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Sergio R Moreno/GTRES/Shutterstock

Next month’s poll no longer the contest it was, as Pedro Sánchez finds himself forced to defend government’s safety record

One of the most dependable cliches of contemporary Spanish politics is that it never pays to bet against Pedro Sánchez. Time and time again – as leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) and as prime minister – Sánchez has shown an almost preternatural ability to profit from adversity, and to confound expectations and wrongfoot his opponents.

But next month’s snap general election, called by Sánchez after rightwing and far-right parties voted down the housing reforms his coalition government had announced in response to angry protests, may suddenly not be the contest it once was.

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© Photograph: Sergio R Moreno/GTRES/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Sergio R Moreno/GTRES/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Sergio R Moreno/GTRES/Shutterstock

A tour of the three caves in southern Spain suggests that people in the area cannibalized one another as funerary practice over many generations.

Audio file appears to point finger at control centre, but there are questions around signalling and technical issues

At least 69 people died when a high-speed train from Madrid to Seville hit another train on the same track from behind near Toledo on Wednesday morning.

Both trains had been brought to a halt earlier when the signalling system failed. The driver of the state-owned Spanish train, a Renfe AVE service, was told by controllers to restart the journey, but crashed into the train in front, run by the private operator Iryo. The front carriages of the AVE train and rear of the Iryo train were destroyed and others derailed.

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© Photograph: Guardia Civil/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Guardia Civil/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Guardia Civil/AFP/Getty Images

After the country’s second major rail disaster in a year, Spaniards were confronting questions about the safety of their once-vaunted rail system.

© Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images

Plus, the legacy of Dolores Huerta.

© Javier Soriano/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Emergency services, drones and dog unit continue to comb carriages as Civil Guard sets up clinics for relatives to provide DNA samples

• How did the Spain train crash happen and what will investigators be asking?

Spain began three days of mourning on Thursday for at least 69 people who died in a high-speed rail collision, as hospitals continued to treat dozens of injured passengers and train drivers went on strike to urge more investment in railway safety.

The trains – one from Spain’s state-owned Renfe and the other from the private rail company Iryo – were travelling from Madrid towards the southern region of Andalucía on Wednesday when they collided just before 9am. After the Iryo train came to a halt, the other slammed into its rear, knocking several carriages off the track near Urda in the central region of Castilla-La Mancha.

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© Photograph: Marcelo del Pozo/Reuters

© Photograph: Marcelo del Pozo/Reuters

© Photograph: Marcelo del Pozo/Reuters

After a high-speed collision near Toledo, Spain, killed at least 68 people, rail safety experts said the rough consensus that it is best to sit in the middle of a train has its limits.

© Oscar Del Pozo/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

There is shock, anger and mourning in Spain after the second fatal train crash this year. At least 68 people have died in what is now the deadliest collision there in more than a decade. William Brangham reports.

The accident, the second in less than a year on the same busy rail line, was one of the deadliest in the country’s history.

© Manu Fernandez/Associated Press

Passengers describe carriages full of seriously injured people after crash that has claimed at least 68 lives

• At least 68 killed in Toledo train crash – full report

Josimar Medina woke a little before 9am on Wednesday to find himself airborne and hurtling through his carriage on the fast train from Madrid to Seville.

“I remember flying through the air and looking for my girlfriend, who was also shooting through the air,” said Medina, a 37-year-old tourist from the northern Peruvian city of Chiclayo.

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© Photograph: Andrea Comas/AP

© Photograph: Andrea Comas/AP

© Photograph: Andrea Comas/AP

Fernando Seco, 62, said he and others moved at least a dozen wounded passengers from the crash site, using parts of the wreckage as makeshift stretchers.

© Ana Beltran/Reuters

At least 68 people were killed in the country's second deadly rail collision this year.

Questions were raised before Toledo crash over rail safety in a country where train travel has surged by 40%

Spain’s high-speed rail network, the most extensive in Europe and the second largest in the world after China, has long been a point of pride in the country. But Wednesday’s deadly crash – the second in nine months – has recast the spotlight on questions about safety.

Officials said at least 68 people were killed on Wednesday morning after a high-speed train slammed into another that had stopped on the tracks, leading to the derailment of several carriages. The two trains were believed to be carrying 544 passengers.

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© Photograph: Burak Akbulut/Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Burak Akbulut/Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Burak Akbulut/Anadolu/Getty Images

Pedro Sánchez says the government will act with urgency to ‘clarify what has happened, why this tragedy occurred’

• Full report from Spain

At least 30 people are believed to have died after two high-speed trains collided in the province of Toledo in Spain, with concerns the death toll could be much higher.

The number of people affected is expected to rise (10:46), local authorities said, with growing concerns about a “major tragedy” (11:03).

The affected trains are understood to be Iryo 7076 with 146 passengers plus one baby on board, and AVE 2080 with 397 passengers on board, making it 544 people in total on board of both train (11:00).

The incident comes less than a year after a similar crash in Adamuz, the province of Córdoba, which killed 46 and injured 152 in January this year (11:00).

Spain’s high-speed railway network ranks as the largest in Europe and the second biggest in the world after China, carrying 25 million passengers in 2024.

Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez said he was “shocked” by the accident (11:05), with transport minister Óscar Puente working at the emergency control centre to “obtain all possible information about what happened” (11:16).

Updated at 10:50am UK to reflect the new death toll

“In the [emergency] control center since 9:40 trying to obtain all possible information about what happened.”

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© Photograph: Ismael Herrero/EPA

© Photograph: Ismael Herrero/EPA

© Photograph: Ismael Herrero/EPA