At Least 30 Dead After Two High-Speed Trains Collide in Toledo Province

A high-speed train crashed into the back of a stopped train in central Spain on Wednesday morning.

The collision occurred in the province of Toledo on a flat stretch of track between the towns of Urda and Los Yébenes. Rail operator ADIF confirmed the location. Two cars left the tracks. Spanish authorities first reported 10 deaths, and Esther Padilla, spokeswoman for the Castilla La Mancha region, told reporters at the time that the figure would likely climb. The state news agency EFE and other outlets later reported at least 30 dead.

Padilla told state broadcaster TVE that both trains were high-speed services carrying hundreds of passengers, traveling in the same direction from Madrid to Seville. She said 397 people were aboard the RENFE train and 147 aboard the IRYO train. The cause of the crash was not known, she said. One car was reduced to scrap metal, with debris scattered down a gravel slope. Spanish media reported it appeared the RENFE train struck the IRYO train. Trains from the two companies were also involved in a deadly crash in January.

Health Minister Mónica García told TVE that responders were concentrating on recovering survivors and the dead from the two most damaged cars, and that the injured were being taken to hospitals across the area. "It was a high-speed impact, so we are expecting this to be a tragedy," García said. IRYO, an Italian-owned company, said in a statement it had "activated its security protocols and is closely working with authorities." The mayor of Urda, Manuel Galán, said civil protection authorities had asked the town hall to prepare a sports pavilion for injured passengers. A military emergency brigade joined firefighters, police and emergency services at the site.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez canceled his schedule and wrote on X that he was "dismayed by the serious train accident in Toledo." Emiliano García-Page, regional president of Castilla La Mancha, wrote that he was traveling to the crash site. Rail service was suspended between Madrid, Ciudad Real and Andalusia.

In January, 45 people died in southern Spain when a train left the track and struck an oncoming train. That was the deadliest such incident in Spain since a 2013 crash that killed 80 people.