Two Australians confirmed among 69 dead in Spain high-speed train collision

Spanish authorities have confirmed that two Australian citizens are among the 69 people who died in last week’s high-speed train collision in Spain. A legal body set up to handle the identification work said in a statement late on Monday that the three latest confirmed victims were two Australians and a Japanese citizen. They have not been named.

The identification body is made up of police and forensics experts. Forensic teams have been working to identify the dead since the crash, at times working from individual body parts, leaving relatives facing an agonising wait.

Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed on Wednesday morning that it was providing consular assistance to the families of two Australians who had died. “We send our deepest condolences to the families at this difficult time,” the department said.

On Tuesday evening, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she had sent her “deepest condolences on behalf of Australia” to her Spanish counterpart, José Manuel Albares, and to the people of Spain. “Our thoughts are with those who have lost loved ones, those injured and all affected by this tragedy,” she said.

Of the 69 victims, 54 were Spanish nationals and 15 were foreigners — four US citizens, two Australians, two Japanese, and one each from Argentina, Canada, France, Mexico, Portugal, Tunisia and the Czech Republic.

The crash happened outside the central village of Urda, about 130 kilometres (80 miles) south of Madrid, when a service by state operator Renfe ploughed into the back of a stationary train belonging to Spanish company Iryo.

The failure of an automatic safety system had halted all trains on a 63-kilometre stretch of track, but a control centre authorised the Renfe service to resume its journey while the other train was still on the line.

It was Spain’s second high-speed train collision this year, after a crash in the southern region of Andalusia in January killed 46 people, raising fresh questions about the country’s rail safety.

Labor MP Jason Clare said on Thursday that accidents of this kind were “something people never, ever recover from”. “The whole country is in shock at the moment, seeing these images on our screens. It’s just horrific,” he told ABC TV.