Spain train crash: Videos capture overturned carriages, passengers, devastation

Aftermath of Spain train collision

At least 68 people have been killed and dozens injured after a high-speed train collision in Spain’s central province of Toledo. Videos and photographs from the scene showed overturned carriages, injured passengers and emergency crews working to rescue people trapped in the wreckage.The collision occurred on Wednesday morning near Urda, about 120 km south of Madrid, on the Madrid-Seville rail route. Recordings captured by passengers showed scenes inside the trains following the impact, while images from the site showed carriages lying on their sides beside the tracks.

Emergency services rushed to the scene to evacuate passengers, provide medical assistance and search the wreckage for survivors.

Injured passengers were taken to nearby medical facilities, including a sports centre converted into a temporary treatment site. The regional government of Castilla-La Mancha said 58 people were receiving treatment in hospitals.According to Spain’s rail infrastructure operator ADIF, both trains were travelling south from Madrid towards Seville when the collision occurred. A state-owned RENFE train struck the rear of an IRYO train that had stopped on the tracks, derailing carriages on both trains.

Spain’s transport minister Óscar Puente said a failure in the railway’s computer communications system had disrupted safety operations before the collision. The malfunction automatically stopped trains along a 63-kilometre stretch of track, after which the RENFE train was reportedly allowed to proceed despite a red signal.

According to accounts of the incident, ADIF took manual control of the system following the failure.

Puente said the train was authorised to continue under circumstances that investigators would need to examine.“There was a red signal prohibiting movement, yet the train was authorized to proceed,” Puente said at a press conference on Wednesday. “It is a decision made under inexplicable circumstances.”

Meanwhile, Spanish trade union CSIF has demanded the resignation of the transport minister following the collision.

The union accused Puente of shifting responsibility onto a railway official rather than accepting accountability for the disaster. Anger over the crash spilled onto the streets of Madrid on Wednesday night, when around 500 demonstrators gathered outside the Transport Ministry. Some protesters threw bottles and flares at police, prompting officers to deploy tear gas to disperse the crowd, Reuters reported.The RENFE train reportedly resumed its journey at about 124 miles per hour before hitting the stationary IRYO train.

Authorities have yet to establish the full sequence of events leading to the crash.

The disaster comes after another deadly rail collision in Spain earlier this year. A January crash in Córdoba province killed more than 40 people, while a separate incident near Barcelona claimed the life of a train driver.Rescue teams continued searching the damaged carriages as authorities worked to identify victims, assist survivors and establish the cause of the collision. Investigators are expected to examine the signalling system, communications failure and the decision to allow the train to proceed despite the red signal.

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