In brief
A collision between a Renfe high‑speed train and a stationary Iryo carriage near Urda in Spain’s Toledo province killed at least 68 people and injured up to 100 passengers, including two South Korean nationals. Spanish officials have declared three days of mourning and are probing a computer failure that may have allowed the moving train to run without speed restrictions.
Near the small town of Urda in Spain’s Toledo province, a high‑speed train ran into a stationary carriage on a line between Madrid and Seville, killing at least 68 people and leaving up to 100 injured, according to Al Jazeera and UPI.
South Korea’s foreign ministry confirmed that two of the injured passengers were South Korean nationals. One sustained only minor injuries and was discharged from the hospital after treatment, while the other remains hospitalized, the ministry said.
The trains involved were an AVE high‑speed service operated by Spain’s state‑owned Renfe, travelling from Madrid to Seville, and an Iryo carriage, operated by a private rail company. The Renfe train struck the rear of the Iryo carriage, which had been stopped on the track, derailing two rearmost carriages and sending them into an embankment, said Esther Padilla, a spokeswoman for the Castilla‑La Mancha regional government.
Al Jazeera reported that roughly 80 passengers were injured, about 50 seriously and 15 critically. UPI noted that about 100 people were injured and described the casualties as “truly unbelievable.”
Spanish authorities are investigating the exact cause of the crash. UPI reports that a computer failure initially paused six moving trains on a 40‑mile stretch of track. The control centre, managed by Adif, allowed the Renfe train to move again without speed restrictions despite a remaining red signal, leading to the collision, said Transport Minister Oscar Puente.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, speaking from Urda, announced that the nation would observe three days of official mourning from 29 to 31 October. “Today the whole of Spain is grieving,” Sánchez said in a statement released by the UPI on the day after the crash. “Lives have been shattered, families have been torn apart, the pain is immense.”
Spanish King Felipe VI also expressed sorrow, stating that he “shares in the sorrow of the families and loved ones” of those who died. Renfe suspended rail service between Madrid and Andalusia on the day of the accident, and crews were working into the night searching for survivors.
The crash prompted the trade union CSIF to call for the resignation of Transport Minister Puente after his comments about the incident, alleging that he placed blame on an individual worker without sufficient evidence. The union demanded that the government protect the presumption of innocence for Adif’s head of traffic during the investigation.
Journalist Graham Keeley, speaking to Al Jazeera from Spain, noted that the accident
