At least 10 reported dead as two trains collide in Spain's Toledo, Madrid-Andalusia services suspended
At least 10 people have been killed after two high-speed trains collided on Wednesday morning in Toledo province in central Spain, government sources said. Many more passengers were feared injured.
Spain's state rail infrastructure authority, Adif, said services between Madrid and the southern region of Andalusia had been suspended following a rear-end collision between two trains.
The crash occurred in the Castilla-La Mancha region. A spokesperson for the regional government said the cause and the number of injuries were yet to be determined.
Government sources said at least 10 people had been killed. A local government spokesperson told television that the death toll would almost certainly rise, and that they knew the number of fatalities and injuries would continue to increase.
The trains involved are likely to be Iryo 7076, with 146 passengers plus one baby on board, and AVE 2080, with 397 passengers on board, according to reports.
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez said on X that he was shocked by the serious train accident in Toledo and remained in constant contact with transport minister Oscar Puente and with the president of Castilla-La Mancha. He said emergency services were working on the ground to assist those affected and ensure their safety, in coordination with all the involved administrations, and expressed affection, solidarity and support to the victims and their families.
Opposition leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo said on X that he was very concerned by the information about a new rail accident. He said the priority now was to attend to the victims and support their families, and gave his full support to the emergency teams working on the ground.
Spain's health minister Monica Garcia, in a brief televised update, said there were no further details regarding the number of fatalities and affected people, as the focus was on ensuring proper care for all the injured, with hospitals freeing up resources whenever possible for the incident. But she said twice that it was a high-impact accident and that they feared it would turn out to be a major tragedy.
Today's accident evokes the January crash in Adamuz, in the province of Cordoba, where 46 people were killed and 152 injured after two high-speed trains crashed.
With almost 4,000km of track, Spain's high-speed railway network is the largest in Europe and the second biggest in the world after China, according to Adif. In 2024, Renfe said more than 25 million passengers had travelled on its high-speed trains that year.
In another major incident in 2013, 80 people died after a train derailed in the country's north-west near Santiago de Compostela. An investigation concluded the train was travelling at 179km/h on a stretch with an 80km/h speed limit when it left the tracks.
