Spain Train Crash Live: At Least 68 Dead After High-Speed Trains Collide Near Toledo

3:43 PM ET · Injured count rises to 183 as 724 responders work the site

Authorities have now counted 183 people injured in the crash, according to a balance as of 8 p.m. local time (3 PM ET) reported by RTVE. Of those, 107 were taken to hospitals in Castilla-La Mancha, where 56 have since been discharged, and 76 were admitted in the Madrid region. Regional president Emiliano García-Page said all of the injured have been identified, RTVE reported. The death toll remains at least 68, and García-Page has not ruled out finding more victims as the wrecked cars are moved.

A total of 724 Civil Guard, Military Emergencies Unit (UME) and Civil Protection personnel are still working at the site, where an advanced command post and public help offices have been set up, RTVE reported. Andalusia’s regional president, Juanma Moreno, called on the central government to immediately review every rail line in Andalusia, especially the high-speed link to Madrid, saying at least 114 people have died on that line in two crashes in nine months, according to RTVE.

3:30 PM ET · Spain reinforces Orgaz court with four more judges; forensic data center set up

Spain’s Justice Ministry has approved sending four more judges to support the investigating judge at the Orgaz court handling the crash, including a magistrate from Alcázar de San Juan who is part of a judicial network of disaster-management experts and will coordinate the court’s work, El Español and EFE reported. The regional chief prosecutor is also traveling to Urda at the request of the attorney general’s office. The Castilla-La Mancha High Court of Justice said it has activated Spain’s national forensic protocol for mass-casualty events and set up a data integration center of forensic experts and police that will handle identification of the dead and release official counts through the court’s press office, according to EFE, as reported by Infobae, and The Objective.

Castilla-La Mancha president Emiliano García-Page said he believes nearly all of the bodies have been located but that more could still be found because some overturned cars have to be lifted, El Español reported. The death toll stands at at least 68. The status of former labor minister Fátima Báñez remains unclear: Euronews, citing ABC, said national Partido Popular sources confirmed her death, while the same report said the CEOE Foundation she leads had no official confirmation. Authorities have not officially confirmed her death.

3:08 PM ET · CSIF union calls for transport minister’s resignation

The public-sector union CSIF has called on Transport Minister Óscar Puente to resign and asked that the presumption of innocence be respected for the Adif traffic controller at the center of the investigation, El Español reported. In a statement, the union accused Puente of using the worker as a “scapegoat” instead of taking responsibility while the investigation has only just begun, and pointed to the initial failure in the signalling computer system. CSIF said it has long demanded more investment in rail maintenance. The government has not responded publicly to the call, and no cause of the crash has been officially confirmed.

In Madrid, the regional government said it has set up an advanced medical post at the crash site and a family assistance point at Atocha station, according to El Español. The death toll remains at least 68, according to Castilla-La Mancha president Emiliano García-Page.

2:44 PM ET · Vox files criminal complaint against Adif; cranes begin lifting wrecked cars

The far-right Vox party has filed a criminal complaint at the court in Orgaz, which is leading the judicial investigation, accusing those responsible at Adif of reckless homicide and reckless injury, Europa Press reported, as cited by El Español. The complaint, brought as a popular action open to any citizen under Spanish law, names the operator or operators at Adif’s Atocha traffic control post who allowed trains to resume running after the LZB signalling failure, their immediate supervisors on that shift, and whoever at Adif was in charge of procedures for running trains when signalling is degraded. No court has ruled on the complaint.

After nightfall at the site, heavy cranes started lifting cars from both trains that had fallen down either side of the embankment, El Español reported. Officials have warned that more victims could be found once the cars are moved. The death toll stands at at least 68, according to Castilla-La Mancha president Emiliano García-Page. The flag at Spain’s Congress of Deputies is flying at half-staff, the chamber said.

2:21 PM ET · Renfe halts Madrid–Andalusia ticket sales to Dec. 13; Iryo driver was awaiting orders

Renfe has stopped selling tickets on the Madrid–Andalusia high-speed corridor through Dec. 13, Antena 3 reported. The broadcaster said that does not mean trains will stay off the line that long, and that Renfe will resume service as soon as rail infrastructure manager Adif reopens it. The death toll remains at least 68, with 80 people in hospital, 15 of them seriously hurt, according to Castilla-La Mancha Civil Protection and Health Minister Mónica García.

The Iryo train had not moved off again because its driver was still in contact with Adif’s control center at Atocha waiting for instructions when the Renfe AVE hit it from behind, sources close to Iryo told Europa Press, as reported by ABC. More than 700 personnel are now deployed at the site, including 200 from the Military Emergencies Unit, 102 from Civil Protection and 422 Civil Guard officers, ABC reported. Iryo’s communications director was traveling on one of the trains and is in hospital, the paper said.

Andalusia’s president, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, said early in the evening, local time, that he still had no news of former labor minister Fátima Báñez, who is on the list of missing passengers, ABC reported. That conflicts with an earlier À Punt report, citing a Castilla-La Mancha government spokesperson, that she had died; her death has not been officially confirmed. García-Page said officials do not know whether more bodies will be found when the derailed cars are moved.

2:03 PM ET · Military emergency unit doubles to 200 troops; Andalusia declares mourning

Spain’s Military Emergencies Unit (UME) has doubled its deployment at the crash site to 200 troops, the Defense Ministry said in a statement reported by El Español. The ministry said their main tasks are urgently finding and rescuing anyone still trapped, opening access routes and removing heavy rail equipment. The unit has brought a technical search team, search dogs, a sapper section, drone operators and three high-capacity cranes. Civil Guard forensic specialists are also flying drones over the site to build a 3D model of the scene to help reconstruct the collision, El Español reported.

Andalusia’s regional president, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, declared three days of official mourning in the region, which many of the passengers were traveling to, and called on the national government for transparency about the crash. He asked for a review of all rail lines in Andalusia, especially the high-speed link with Madrid, El Español reported. Spain’s association of civil engineers also called for an immediate review of how the rail system is managed and set up a committee to follow the case. The death toll remains at least 68, according to the Castilla-La Mancha regional government.

1:45 PM ET · Civil Guard questions entire control-room shift; no injured left at the site

Civil Guard investigators, including officers from its elite Central Operational Unit (UCO), have questioned not only the Adif traffic controller the transport minister pointed to but every member of that shift at Adif’s high-speed traffic control center at Madrid’s Atocha station, El Mundo reported. The officers are acting as judicial police for the court in Orgaz that opened the case, working alongside the CIAF rail accident investigators. Several sources told the paper the controller was in a state of shock. No one has been arrested.

There are no more injured people needing medical care at the crash site, sources told El País, according to the Guardian. The first hearse carrying victims reached Toledo’s Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences in the afternoon, local time, where a temporary morgue is being set up, El Español reported. The death toll remains at least 68.

Renfe said it will run its replacement shuttles from Puertollano to Madrid until 10 p.m. local time, regional broadcaster CMM reported, while Spain’s bus operators’ association Confebus said member companies have multiplied seats on Madrid–Andalusia routes by up to five times and tickets are selling out quickly, RTVE reported.

1:25 PM ET · Officials put hospitalized at 80; heavy crane reaches the site

Castilla-La Mancha’s Civil Protection service and Spain’s health minister, Mónica García, now say 80 people injured in the crash are in hospital, up from the 58 the regional government reported earlier, according to Antena 3. That confirms the higher figure Cadena SER had been reporting. The death toll remains at least 68.

A large crane arrived at the crash site to help rescuers, who are still searching for people who may be trapped and are surveying the area with drones, El Español reported. The derailed cars on both sides of the embankment had not yet been moved, and rescuers do not know what they will find underneath them, the paper said.

Transport Minister Óscar Puente acknowledged that no safety system was in place that could have stopped a human error in this situation and said he will not resign, El Español reported. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said earlier that “everything indicates” the causes of this crash and January’s Adamuz crash are unrelated, but that safety would be reinforced if needed to rebuild confidence in high-speed rail.

1:06 PM ET · Ouigo halts Madrid–Andalusia trains until Nov. 2; National Police member reported missing

French operator Ouigo said it has suspended all of its services on the Madrid–Andalusia corridor until at least Monday, Nov. 2, El Español reported, citing a company statement. With Renfe and Iryo high-speed service on the line already halted since the crash, no high-speed operator is now running between Madrid and Andalusia.

Police sources told El Español that a member of Spain’s National Police is also missing after the crash, in addition to the Civil Guard officer who remains unaccounted for. Authorities have not released a figure for the total number of missing passengers.

Separately, El Español reported that public Renfe Data figures archived by the tracking site SpainTrainRadar show the AVE averaging about 137 km/h (85 mph) in the minute of the collision, after a stop of about 11 minutes near Mora. That is an unofficial reading of public tracking data, not an investigators’ finding, and it differs from ministry sources’ earlier estimate of about 200 km/h. The official speed at impact has not been confirmed.

12:35 PM ET · Second Civil Guard officer missing; Iryo train was still awaiting clearance

Besides the Civil Guard officer confirmed dead, a second officer is missing and a third was seriously injured, while two others who were aboard came through unhurt, El Español reported, citing Civil Guard sources.

The Iryo train that was struck had not been given an order by Adif’s control center to move again after the LZB system failed, and was standing still waiting for that clearance when the AVE hit it from behind, El Español reported, without naming its sources. That would help explain why the Iryo stayed stopped, something Renfe said earlier it did not know.

Madrid regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso declared three days of mourning in the Madrid region. She said on X that the response to calls for blood donations had been so large that people who still want to give should wait until Thursday or the following days, when blood will still be needed.

12:25 PM ET · Civil Guard officer among the dead; Madrid hospitals treating 27

Spain’s Civil Guard said one of its officers, identified only by his first name, José Manuel, was among those killed in the crash, and sent condolences to his family and colleagues, El Confidencial reported. Civil Guard spokesman Ramón Cuevas said the first responders at the scene were two local patrols from the Toledo command and a third from its environmental unit in Los Yébenes, who found what he called a catastrophic scene. He said medical staff who were traveling on one of the trains gave the first aid to victims, and he again urged first-degree relatives of missing passengers to file reports at Civil Guard offices so DNA samples can be taken.

Hospitals in the Madrid region’s public health network have treated 27 people injured in the crash, spread across seven hospitals including La Paz, 12 de Octubre and Getafe, El Confidencial reported, citing the regional health service. Separately, El Confidencial reported that Spain’s State Rail Safety Agency (AESF) handled union warnings on Oct. 7 about the overuse of “on sight” running, the reduced-signalling mode the ministry says the AVE should have been limited to after the LZB system failed. The agency has not commented publicly on that report.

12:10 PM ET · Former labor minister Fátima Báñez among the dead, reports say

Fátima Báñez, 59, Spain’s employment minister from 2011 to 2018 and president of the CEOE business confederation’s foundation since 2020, was killed in the crash, Valencian public broadcaster À Punt reported, citing a Castilla-La Mancha government spokesperson. ABC reported the death citing sources at the Popular Party’s national headquarters, and Euronews said she had been traveling in the last car of the Iryo train, the one struck by the AVE, on her way to a business event in Seville. Euronews also reported that the CEOE foundation said it did not yet have official confirmation.

Separately, the train drivers’ union Semaf said it would go ahead with a 24-hour strike across the Renfe group on Thursday, Oct. 29, which it had called in mid-October over rail safety, Europa Press and El Español reported. The union urged caution about the cause of the crash, said it had no information yet on the drivers in the Renfe train’s cab, and told members to take extra care at work. Minimum-service rules in place for the strike require about 73% of high-speed and long-distance trips to run, Las Provincias reported.

11:59 AM ET · Judge in Orgaz leads probe; opposition demands rail review

The duty judge at the court in Orgaz, in Toledo province, has taken charge of the judicial investigation, with five judges sharing tasks such as removing bodies and authorizing work at the site, Cadena SER reported.

Opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo of the conservative Popular Party called for a judicial and government investigation carried out “without interference” and a full, independent review of Spain’s rail network. He said there was still no confirmed news of former labor minister Fátima Báñez, whom Seville mayor José Luis Sanz said was aboard the Iryo train, according to Cadena SER. The left-wing Andalusian party Adelante Andalucía called on Transport Minister Óscar Puente to resign, saying the blame cannot fall only on one worker.

Renfe set up special trains on the conventional line linking Madrid, Ciudad Real and Puertollano for passengers who already had tickets, and Iberia added flights to Andalusia and capped fares on those routes through Nov. 8, Cadena SER reported. Cadena SER’s running tally now lists at least 80 people in hospital; The Boston Report has not yet seen a regional government statement with that figure.

11:48 AM ET · Ministry: AVE was moving at about 200 km/h; worker questioned

Transport Ministry sources told Europa Press that the Adif control center let all six stopped trains resume normal running against railway rules, which allow only “on sight” running at up to 40 km/h when the LZB system is down. The Renfe AVE then reached about 200 km/h before hitting the Iryo train at 8:53 a.m. local time, the sources said. Puente said the AVE covered about 25 kilometers in roughly 17 minutes, COPE reported. Accounts of the length of track left without LZB coverage vary, from about 60 to 90 kilometers.

The Adif employee who authorized the restart was questioned by Civil Guard judicial police and is under watch and receiving psychological care, the news site Vozpópuli reported; officials have not confirmed that detail. García-Page said firefighters need a judge’s authorization before cranes and the military emergency unit can move wrecked cars to search for more victims, according to Cadena SER.

11:47 AM ET · Most victims were on the Iryo train; 58 in hospital

García-Page said at least 44 of the 68 dead were aboard the Iryo train and 24 aboard the Renfe AVE, Cadena SER reported. He said the toll was expected to rise because rescuers had not reached the deepest parts of the wreckage, and that canine units would search for anyone still alive.

The Castilla-La Mancha government said at 2 p.m. local time (9 AM ET) that 58 people remained in hospital, 15 triaged red (life-threatening) and 43 yellow, EFE reported via Antena 3. Of those placed so far, 21 were at Toledo’s University General Hospital, 8 at Mancha Centro in Alcázar de San Juan, 3 at Ciudad Real General and 1 at Albacete General. About 50 people with minor injuries were cared for in sports halls in Urda and Consuegra, ABC reported. Toledo’s University Hospital cancelled scheduled surgeries and appealed for blood donations, laSexta reported.

The CEOE business confederation said on X that Fátima Báñez, a former Spanish labor minister who heads its foundation, was aboard one of the trains, the BBC reported. Her condition has not been officially reported. Authorities have not released victims’ nationalities.

11:45 AM ET · Civil Guard opens DNA collection offices for victims’ families

The Civil Guard asked first-degree relatives of people who may have been aboard the two trains (parents and children) to go to its offices in Madrid, Toledo, Córdoba and Seville to report missing loved ones and give DNA samples, saying identification was its top priority, ABC and RTVE reported. Police sources told ABC that the first DNA matches could come within hours, and within about 24 hours. The central government’s delegation in Castilla-La Mancha said the bodies were being taken to the Institute of Legal Medicine in Toledo, according to RTVE.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia said in a statement on X that they were “deeply saddened” by the crash and sent support to the injured and to emergency crews, AP reported. Speaking to reporters at a military base in Bétera, near Valencia, the king said all the circumstances of the crash were being examined and that he had spoken with regional president García-Page, RTVE reported. El Español reported that he cut short his schedule to return to Madrid.

10:50 AM ET · Sánchez declares three days of mourning

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Spain would observe three days of official mourning from Oct. 29 through Oct. 31. “Spain is in mourning and embraces the victims,” he said, according to the Guardian’s translation.

Sánchez said the government would work with independent rail accident investigators and the courts to establish what happened. “If there has been any negligence, it will come to light,” he said, adding that any safety-system failures would be addressed. He called it “unacceptable” for Spain to suffer two high-speed rail accidents in one year. He took no questions.

10:44 AM ET · Regional president: at least 68 dead

Castilla-La Mancha president Emiliano García-Page, speaking at the scene before Sánchez, said the latest data showed at least 68 deaths. He said about 15 people had severe or critical injuries and 53 had been hospitalized with moderate injuries. Earlier in the day, regional officials had given tolls of 10 and then 64.

The Spanish newspaper El Español, citing Civil Protection, reported more than 179 people injured in total. That broader figure has not been matched by a regional government statement seen by The Boston Report.

10:33 AM ET · Civil Guard questions Adif control-center worker

Civil Guard officers questioned the Adif control-center employee who was managing traffic on the Madrid–Seville high-speed line at the time of the crash, Europa Press reported, citing sources in the investigation. The officers are assisting technical investigators from the rail accident investigation body.

9:55 AM ET · Transport minister describes signalling failure and “inexplicable” order

Transport Minister Óscar Puente said that at about 8:30 a.m. local time, the LZB train-control system lost communications over a little more than 60 kilometers of track, which automatically stopped six trains. About six minutes later, he said, Adif’s control center issued a manual instruction allowing traffic to resume. Over roughly the next 25 minutes, the Renfe train covered about 25 kilometers before hitting the stationary Iryo train.

Puente said a signalling failure “can happen” but that strict procedures apply, including running “on sight” at no more than 40 km/h. He said the person who authorized the restart has been identified and is subject to the investigation. “We are absolutely devastated,” he said, per the Guardian. He did not answer a question about whether he would resign.

8:36 AM ET · Accident investigators reach the site

Three investigators from Spain’s former rail accident commission (CIAF), now part of an independent transport accident investigation authority, were working at the scene with Civil Guard forensic specialists, El Español reported. They plan to examine both trains’ juridical recorders, or “black boxes,” Adif’s control-center logs and operator data, and to interview staff and witnesses.

Renfe said in a statement, reported by Reuters, that its train had been authorized to continue and then struck the Iryo train, which had stayed stopped “for reasons we don’t know.”

5:00 AM ET · First toll reported; high-speed line shut

The Castilla-La Mancha government first reported 10 deaths and warned the figure would rise, France 24 reported. Regional spokeswoman Esther Padilla said 397 passengers were aboard the Renfe train and 147 aboard the Iryo train. Infrastructure manager Adif suspended high-speed traffic between Madrid and Andalusia, and the regional government requested Spain’s Military Emergencies Unit (UME) to help with rescue work, according to El Español.

3:54 AM ET · Two high-speed trains collide in Toledo province

Renfe’s AVE 2080, which left Madrid at 8 a.m. local time, struck Iryo train 6076 at kilometer point 118 between Los Yébenes and Urda at 8:54 a.m. local time, El Español reported. The Renfe unit is a Siemens train and the Iryo unit a Hitachi train. Two Iryo cars left the track, according to the regional government.