At least 68 people have died after two high-speed trains collided near Urda in Spain’s Toledo province on 28 October. The latest regional figures reported by RTVE also put 53 injured people in hospital, including 15 in serious condition. The casualty count remained provisional as emergency work continued.
A Renfe AVE travelling from Madrid towards Seville struck the rear of an Iryo train that was stopped on the same route shortly before 09:00. Several carriages derailed. The Madrid–Andalusia high-speed line was interrupted in both directions, turning a major transport corridor into the centre of a rescue operation.
Firefighters, medical teams, the Guardia Civil and the military emergency unit were deployed. Hospitals in Castilla-La Mancha and Madrid prepared to receive casualties. Survivors described broken windows, overturned carriages and passengers helping others escape before the full emergency response reached the site.
Transport Minister Óscar Puente described a failure in the LZB safety system earlier in the morning, followed by an authorisation for the Renfe service to move again. That account sets out issues for investigators; it does not establish a final technical cause or individual responsibility.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the emergency command post and promised a thorough investigation, including action if negligence is established. Investigators will have to reconcile control-centre decisions, signalling conditions and train records rather than infer blame from the first accounts alone.
The impact extended beyond the railway. Spain’s football federation postponed the 24 Copa del Rey fixtures scheduled for Wednesday evening as a gesture of respect for the victims. Rail passengers faced disruption on the southern corridor, with no confirmed reopening time in the reports checked.
The disaster comes months after the fatal January collision at Adamuz. Photographs of that earlier crash have circulated again, but they do not show Urda. The image accompanying this report is explicitly identified as an archive photograph of AVE trains, not a scene from today’s collision.
