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At least 64 people died and dozens were injured on Wednesday in the collision of two trains about 150 kilometers south of Madrid, according to the preliminary toll of the second serious railway accident in Spain this year.
This accident occurs in the midst of the election campaign for the November 29 general election and months after the collision of two high-speed trains in Adamuz, Andalusia, left 46 dead in January.
On the tracks, the two long trains could be seen, one white from the Renfe company embedded in a red one from Iryo, partially derailed after the crash.
"We are talking about (...) approximately 64" dead, indicated the president of the Castilla-La Mancha region, Emiliano García-Page. "But it will likely tend to grow even more. It is a tragedy," he added.
Of the hundred injured registered so far, 58 were being treated in hospitals, the regional government reported, 15 of them in very serious condition.
- "Smell of an accident" -
At the site of the accident, which occurred on a long straight section with apparently good visibility, there were scenes of chaos.
The landscape was "devastating. Horrible, there was a smell of an accident, of metal," described Manuel Ortiz, a 49-year-old neighbor who spent the whole morning transporting passengers who were leaving on their own.
Helicopters were flying over the area and there was a major deployment of emergency services. The Ministry of the Interior also deployed personnel from the Military Emergency Unit.
Faced with a possible increase in needs, the blood transfusion center of the Community of Madrid made an "urgent" appeal for donations.
The President of the Government, the socialist Pedro Sánchez, declared himself "dismayed" on X and will travel to Urda in the early afternoon, his team indicated.
His Socialist Party suspended all its campaign activities for the day. For his part, the leader of the right-wing opposition and Sánchez's main rival, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, declared himself "very worried."
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- "Terrible misfortune" -
The incident occurred at approximately 08:54 local time (07:54 GMT) when the two trains collided near the Urda station, a town in the province of Toledo, a spokeswoman for the regional emergency service reported to AFP.
The Renfe company issued a statement stating that its train had departed at 08:00 local time from Madrid bound for Seville, in the south, and expressed all its support to those affected.
From an event near Valencia (east), the King of Spain, Felipe VI, lamented "that terrible misfortune" and conveyed his condolences and support to the families "at such a hard, such a difficult time."
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his solidarity in the face of this "terrible railway drama" and the European Commission offered "aid to the Spanish authorities."
"Today Europe mourns," said the president of the community executive, Ursula von der Leyen.
In a country shocked once again, the Royal Spanish Football Federation announced the suspension of the 24 matches scheduled for today in the first round of the Copa del Rey.
With 4,000 kilometers of track, the Spanish high-speed rail network is the second most important in the world, after that of China, and one of the country's prides.
The Adamuz tragedy, which occurred on January 18, had rekindled debates in Spain about the maintenance of the railway network and passenger safety, in what is the second most visited country in the world each year.
That accident, in which a train from the private company Iryo derailed before colliding with another from Renfe coming in the opposite direction, also sparked harsh criticism from the right-wing and far-right opposition against Pedro Sánchez's left-wing government.
The Adamuz accident was, until now, the greatest railway catastrophe in Spain since the tragic derailment of an Alvia train in 2013 in the Galicia region, in the northwest.
That event left 80 dead near Santiago de Compostela, in one of the deadliest railway accidents in decades in Spain.
[Publicidad]