Spain has begun three days of mourning after at least 69 people were killed and more than 100 were injured in a crash between two high-speed trains. The town of Urda has become the site of a major operation, as emergency services continue to search through the wreckage and relatives wait for news of their loved ones. There is growing public anger over the incident, which is the second fatal train collision in Spain in less than a year. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s Madrid correspondent, Sam Jones

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© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

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

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

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

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

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

High-speed service travelling from Madrid to Seville ran into back of another, knocking two carriages off track

• Spain train crash – latest updates

The Spanish prime minister has declared three days of mourning after at least 68 people were killed and dozens more injured in a collision between two high-speed trains in central Spain.

The trains were travelling in the same direction on the line that stretches from the Spanish capital, Madrid, to Seville on Wednesday when one of the trains ran into the tail of the other that had stopped, knocking several carriages off the track.

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© Photograph: Ismael Herrero/EPA/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Ismael Herrero/EPA/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Ismael Herrero/EPA/Shutterstock

High-speed service travelling from Madrid to Seville ran into back of another, knocking two carriages off track

The Spanish prime minister has declared three days of mourning after at least 68 people were killed and dozens more injured in a collision between two high-speed trains that officials suggested was caused by an “inexplicable” error at the central command centre.

The trains, one from Spain’s state-owned Renfe and the other from the private rail company Iryo, were travelling on Wednesday morning in the same direction on the line that stretches from the Spanish capital, Madrid, to the southern region of Andalusia. After the Iryo train came to a halt, the other slammed into its rear, knocking several carriages off the track near the town of Urda.

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© Photograph: Ismael Herrero/EPA/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Ismael Herrero/EPA/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Ismael Herrero/EPA/Shutterstock

Oozing panache and bagging awards already, La Bola Negra is an eye-popping war and prejudice epic starring Penélope Cruz in a blond wig and Glenn Close speaking Spanish. We meet the ex-lovers who dreamed it up

When Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo – the directing duo known in their native Spain as “Los Javis” – began writing their queer epic La Bola Negra, they weren’t thinking about whether it would be stylish (which it is) or win numerous awards (which it has) or capture what they refer to as “the anti-fascist zeitgeist” (which it does). Instead, they thought only of scale. “I’m done with LGBTQ+ movies being niche,” says Ambrossi. “I was like, ‘Let’s make the biggest, gayest war movie ever.’” Job done.

At Cannes this year, the best director prize was awarded jointly to them and to Paweł Pawlikowski, who made the Thomas Mann road trip film Fatherland. La Bola Negra is now an Oscars frontrunner, with best picture and best director nominations all but guaranteed. Brimming with panache, the movie darts back and forth between three stories set in Spain: in 1932, a young man applying for membership of an exclusive casino is rejected on the grounds of his suspected homosexuality; in 1937, a callow nationalist soldier develops tender feelings for the injured republican prisoner under his watch; and in 2017, a queer historian inherits an unfinished story by Federico García Lorca. That story lends the movie its title and provides the thread that sews its strands together.

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© Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

© Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

© Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy