‘Twisted mass of metal’: At least 30 dead in ‘apocalyptic’ high-speed train crash in Spain

London: Two trains have collided on a high-speed line in central Spain in a crash that has killed at least 30 people, with authorities warning the number is expected to rise.

One train crashed into the rear of the other just after 9am local time on the line south of Madrid, forcing at least three carriages off the tracks and down an embankment.

One passenger told Spanish newspaper El Mundo the scene was “apocalyptic” because of the scale of the destruction, as medics removed bodies from the smashed carriages.

The greatest damage appeared to be to the rear three carriages of an Iryo train travelling south, which was rammed from behind by a Renfe AVE train also heading south from Madrid.

“It’s hard to imagine anyone is still alive in those three cars,” passenger Sebastián Herrero, a 46-year-old from Seville, told El Mundo. “It’s just a twisted mass of metal. It’s as if a bomb had gone off.”

Herrero told the newspaper he was travelling in car 7 of the Iryo train that had departed Madrid for the south. Of the nine carriages, he said, four or five were derailed when the Renfe AVE crashed into the Iryo train.

“It’s a perfectly straight stretch of track,” he said. “It’s impossible to understand how there was no warning.”

Another passenger, Jesús Jerónimo, 54, told newspaper El Pais that he was travelling in car 2 of the Renfe AVE service heading south to Seville. “I felt a really brutal acceleration and I slammed into the seat in front of me,” he said.

Early reports indicate the Renfe AVE train had 397 passengers and the Iryo had 147 passengers.

At least 30 people have died, according to the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha, although officials warned this would rise. The president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, said more than 80 people were injured, 50 of them seriously.

A young woman on the Iryo train, Eduarda, told news outlet Cadena Ser that some passengers had been trapped beneath the trains.

“There were many people screaming because they couldn’t get out – it was horrific,” she said.

She told the news outlet, in an account also published by El Espanol, that the Iryo train she was on was in motion at the time of the crash.

Spanish media reported that the Iryo train had sent an alert to the rail control centre saying it was stopped due to a failure of the LZB track signalling system, leading to speculation it was at a standstill when struck by the Renfe AVE train.

Spain’s rail system operator ADIF said the crash occurred on Wednesday morning in the province of Toledo. Rail service was suspended between Madrid, Ciudad Real and Andalusia.

The Castilla La Mancha regional government confirmed the death toll had risen to 30 people, after an earlier warning by spokeswoman Esther Padilla that the “number will surely rise”.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote on X that he was “shocked” by the “serious train accident”.

“Emergency services are working on the ground to assist those affected and ensure their safety, in coordination with all the involved administrations,” he wrote.

“My affection, solidarity and support to all the victims and their families.”

The collision comes nine months after an accident between high-speed trains belonging to the same operators on the same line.

In January, 45 people died in southern Spain when a train jumped the track and hit an oncoming train. The crash was the deadliest in Spain since a 2013 crash that killed 80 people.

The crash on Wednesday could be worse than the January tragedy, El Pais reported.

“The government confirms that there are many dead in the train accident and points to human error,” the newspaper said.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has clashed at times with Sanchez on migration policy, sent a message of sympathy to Spain.

“In these such difficult hours, the Italian Government is close to Spain and the Spanish people for the dramatic railway accident that occurred near Toledo,” she wrote on X.

“My thoughts and those of our entire government go to the families of the victims, to the injured, and to all those who are working tirelessly in the rescue operations.”

French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen were among the other world leaders to post tributes to the victims on X.

More to come

With AP, Reuters

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