Rescue crews and their dogs are still picking through carriages shredded into scraps of metal in an olive field in central Spain, searching for survivors and for the dead.
At least 68 people were killed and another 58 were taken to hospitals for treatment when a high-speed Renfe AVE train plowed into the rear of a stopped Iryo train near Urda, in Toledo province south of Madrid, on Wednesday morning, Oct. 28, 2026, the Castilla-La Mancha regional government said. Both trains were running from Madrid to Seville. The toll is expected to rise.
Spain’s Transport Minister Óscar Puente said the crash came down to an “inexplicable” order from the central command center that directs the country’s trains after a safety system failed.
A Stop Signal Still Active
At 8:30 a.m., Puente said, a computer malfunction knocked out the safety system along a 63-kilometer (39-mile) stretch of track, and every train on it stopped — six in all, including the two that would collide. The control center then told the Renfe train to start running again, with no speed restriction.
At about 8:54 a.m., after covering roughly 25 kilometers (16 miles) at speeds of up to 200 kph (124 mph), it hit the stationary Iryo train. The train should never have been released while a stop signal was still active on the line, Puente said, and if it was, it should have been held to a reduced speed.
The official who authorized the restart has been identified, Puente said, and the open inquiries will determine what follows.
What a Construction Crew Found
The collision happened at kilometer marker 118, on flat ground between the towns of Urda and Los Yébenes. Two Iryo cars came off the track and tumbled down an embankment. Debris spilled down a gravel slope.
David Gómez, a construction worker, was on a job nearby with his brother and a colleague when they heard the impact and ran toward it. People were climbing out through the windows, he said. The three cut through fencing to reach the trains and treated the injured with first-aid kits they had carried over until emergency services arrived; as he tried to pull out a young woman, Gómez said, he found a piece of a leg.
Esther Padilla, a spokesperson for the Castilla-La Mancha region, said 397 passengers were aboard the Renfe train and 147 aboard the Iryo. A military emergency brigade joined firefighters and police at the site. Ambulances and medical helicopters shuttled victims out while unhurt passengers were put on buses. Manuel Galán, the mayor of Urda, said civil protection authorities asked his town hall to ready a sports pavilion for the injured.
Emiliano García-Page, president of the Castilla-La Mancha region, said 24 of the dead were found on the Renfe train and the rest on the Iryo, and that at least 15 people were seriously hurt. Search-and-rescue teams are using canines to comb the wreckage. Health Minister Mónica García said crews were concentrating on the most damaged cars and that the injured were being sent to hospitals around the area.
The Same Two Operators Again
In January, an Iryo train derailed near Adamuz, in Cordoba province, and struck an oncoming Renfe train, killing at least 45 people. Iryo is Italian-owned and competes with the state-owned Renfe on a network Spain opened to private operators only recently.
It is the deadliest high-speed crash in Spain since 2013, when a Madrid-to-Ferrol train derailed in Galicia, killing 80 people. The country has laid some 3,900 kilometers (2,400 miles) of high-speed track over three decades for 49 million residents, a network second only to China’s 45,000 kilometers (28,000 miles).
Sánchez Promises a Full Investigation
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez canceled his public agenda and promised a full investigation. He faces a national election Nov. 29. King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia said on X that they were following the accident and sent their support to the injured and the bereaved. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen offered condolences to the victims’ families.
ADIF, the rail infrastructure operator, suspended service between Madrid, Ciudad Real and Andalusia. Spain’s soccer federation postponed all 24 Copa del Rey matches scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 28. The U.S. State Department said several U.S. citizens were injured.
García-Page said the independent railway accident investigation commission will determine the causes, and that any negligence or failure in the safety system will be dealt with.
Ignacio Relaño, a passenger on the Renfe train, told Spanish state television that his train had stopped on the line, started up again and then struck the Iryo. “We all felt the train abruptly slowing down and then the impact,” he said.