Spain: At least 64 dead in one of the country's worst train disasters

At least 64 people were killed and several others injured in Wednesday's collision of two trains about 150 km south of Madrid, according to authorities, a provisional toll that makes it one of the worst rail disasters in Spain after a previous tragedy in January.

This deadly accident comes in the midst of the campaign for the November 29th legislative elections and less than a year after, also, a collision between two trains in Adamuz, Andalusia, which killed 46 people, shocking all of Spain.

On site, in the town of Urda, an AFP journalist saw the wrecked trains, two of which had apparently derailed before ending up below the embankment.

Paramedics, firefighters, police officers and Guardia Civil agents were busy around the tangled wreckage, while helicopters flew overhead.

Roads were closed to facilitate access for the numerous rescue services and to allow the evacuation of victims.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who is en route to Urda according to his office, said he was "appalled." King Felipe VI lamented "a terrible tragedy."

- "Monstrous" -

According to a spokesperson for the emergency services contacted by AFP, the collision took place "at 08:54" (07:54 GMT) between "two trains, one from Iryo and the other from Renfe", near the Urda station, in the Castile-La Mancha region.

Iryo is a private company, 51% owned by the Italian railways FS, and Renfe is the Spanish national public company.

"We are talking about 64 deaths," including 40 on the Iryo train and 24 on the Renfe train, said regional president Emiliano García-Page at a press conference in the early afternoon.

"This number will probably increase even further," he warned. And he added: "It's enormous, it's monstrous."

Earlier, he had explained that rescuers were trying to reach the "deepest" areas of the carriages in search of survivors, assuring that there were dozens of injured, some seriously.

The official, as well as the Minister of Health, Monica Garcia, interviewed on Spanish television, said they "had no information" at this stage on the cause of the accident.

As it stands, traffic "is interrupted" between Madrid and Andalusia, the southern region of Spain, announced ADIF, the company in charge of managing the railway infrastructure.

Renfe, whose Madrid-Seville train was involved in the accident, said in a statement that it was "gathering information to assess the extent of the accident".

- Worst tragedy since 2013 -

This tragedy comes as a blow to the election campaign, one month before the early legislative elections.

The Socialist Party (PSOE), led by Pedro Sánchez, announced the suspension of its campaign activities until Thursday.

The leader of the People's Party (PP, right), Alberto Nuñez Feijoo, declared on X that he was "very concerned" about this new train accident.

The 24 Copa del Rey matches scheduled for the evening have been postponed, according to the Spanish Football Federation.

In Brussels, the European Union assured that it was ready to provide "all its assistance" to the Spanish authorities. "Europe mourns with you today," added Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on X.

French President Emmanuel Macron, for his part, expressed "France's solidarity" after this "terrible tragedy".

With nearly 4,000 kilometers of railway lines, the Spanish high-speed rail network is the second largest in the world, after China's, and one of the country's prides.

The Adamuz collision on January 18, also between two high-speed trains, had revived debates in Spain about the maintenance of the railway network and about passenger safety, in the second most visited country in the world each year.

This accident also sparked strong criticism from the right-wing and far-right opposition against the government of Socialist Pedro Sanchez, who had then pledged to invest 1.8 billion euros to improve network maintenance.

With a toll that remains provisional, the Urda tragedy is the biggest rail disaster in Spain since a deadly derailment that killed 80 people near Santiago de Compostela (northwest) in 2013.