Spain has begun three days of mourning to commemorate the 69 people who died in a high-speed rail collision. The trains – one from Spain's state-owned Renfe and the other from the private rail company Iryo – were heading from Madrid to to the southern region of Andalucía on the same line when they collided. The deadly crash came just 10 months after 46 people were killed when two trains collided on the same line. The disaster has raised fresh questions about safety on Spain's large, modern high-speed rail network. The Guardian's Laure Boulinier explains how it unfolded
The high-speed train collision in Urda, in the Spain’s province of Toledo, has 69 deaths confirmed on October 29, with 107 injured still hospitalized after a train was cleared to move despite a safety system failure.
The Spanish Commission of Investigation of Railway Accidents (CIAF) rectified this afternoon the last figure of death people of the train accident of Wednesday in Urda, in the Spanish province of Toledo, south of Madrid, mantaining at 69 the number of fatalities. The correction came minutes after the same agency raised the figure to 74 on its website.
Sources from the Ministry of Transport assured that the official data are those provided by the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha and that they do not confirm “any data” of those deaths, despite the figure published earlier on the website of the Commission of Investigation of Railway Accidents (CIAF), which is hosted on the page of the Ministry.
According to the account provided by authorities, the LZB safety system on the Madrid-Seville high-speed line went down at 8:30 A.M. local time, forcing at least six trains to stop. Six minutes later, at 8:36 A.M. local time, the control center authorized the Renfe AVE train to resume its journey. It traveled 25 kilometers before hitting, at 8:53 A.M., an Iryo train that was stopped on the track. The investigation is ongoing and the sequence of events has not been confirmed in court.
Transport Minister Óscar Puente called the order issued from the Adif command center at Atocha station in Madrid “inexplicable.” He confirmed that the system was showing a red warning alerting to the presence of the stopped train.
The authorities reported that the person responsible for authorizing the advance is identified and under investigation, amid harsh questions about the state management of public transport after two serious accidents were recorded in the same year.
The judge in charge of the case barred access to anyone not involved in the work around the crash site, covering a two-kilometer perimeter along the high-speed line in both directions. The order bans the removal of materials and the dissemination of images in order to preserve evidence, traces and evidence for the clarification of criminal responsibilities.
The collision reignited harsh criticism of state management of public transport. Spain has now recorded two serious rail disasters in a single year.
The Spanish Union of Train Drivers and Rail Assistants (SEMAF) held a 24-hour national strike on Renfe services, including at Sants station in Barcelona, to demand better safety conditions on the rail network.
Drivers’ representatives said the lack of state investment in rail infrastructure directly compromises the integrity of workers and passengers. They demanded urgent hiring of more staff to avoid work overload and guarantee required rest, and a concrete protocol for extreme weather. They recalled recent weather events that caused derailments and infrastructure collapses, such as walls falling onto the tracks in Barcelona province.
The union urged the Government of Spain to direct budget funds toward renewing the network and strengthening safety across the public transport system.
The investigation remains open and the crash zone sealed. The union’s three demands, more staff, protected rest periods, and a weather protocol, now form part of a wider reckoning over how Spain runs its railways.
The results of the technical investigation and the judge’s inquiry will determine who bears responsibility. Authorities are expected to release updated figures as rescue and identification work continues.
“It was worse than an earthquake,” says 21-year-old Greek man who survived the fatal collision of the two high speed trains in Spain. “The impact caught us while we were standing; we were traveling at 170 kilometers per hour, and we all fell onto one another,” Marios recalled speaking to Mega TV Live News magazine. […]
Spain has begun three days of mourning after at least 69 people were killed and more than 100 were injured in a crash between two high-speed trains. The town of Urda has become the site of a major operation, as emergency services continue to search through the wreckage and relatives wait for news of their loved ones. There is growing public anger over the incident, which is the second fatal train collision in Spain in less than a year. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s Madrid correspondent, Sam Jones
Spain has begun three days of mourning after at least 69 people were killed and more than 100 were injured in a crash between two high-speed trains. The town of Urda has become the site of a major operation, as emergency services continue to search through the wreckage and relatives wait for news of their loved ones. There is growing public anger over the incident, which is the second fatal train collision in Spain in less than a year. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s Madrid correspondent, Sam Jones – watch on YouTube
The Spanish National Police have submitted video footage to the National Court that allegedly features undercover Moroccan agents during the late-July border crossing into Ceuta.
According to documentation from the National Center for Immigration and Borders (CENIF), the footage suggests the mass illegal crossing was a coordinated operation involving both uniformed police and plainclothes operatives rather than a spontaneous event.
As part of the evidence submission, as reported by The Objective, CENIF provided Judge María Tardón with 34 visual files tracking Moroccan personnel. Ten files show uniformed officers, while the remaining 24 document individuals whose behavior differed significantly from the migrants.
La Policía Nacional ha entregado a la Audiencia Nacional un vídeo en el que aparecen reflejados varios individuos que los investigadores identifican como presuntos agentes marroquíes durante la entrada masiva en Ceuta.
Toda la información: https://t.co/aKG2LfPYlF https://t.co/f8Mg8xCngV
The core material consists of a 3-minute video of uniformed personnel and a 7.5-minute video of alleged plainclothes “facilitators.”
Numerous social media posts have since posted videos they claim show Spanish police helping migrants along.
Los vídeos de la complicidad de Marruecos con la invasión de Ceuta: la Policía concluye que «no fue un fenómeno espontáneo».
https://t.co/TVt5psyV42 https://t.co/bUqiArBcVx
Investigators state these plainclothes individuals embedded themselves in the crowd or stood by Moroccan checkpoints to direct the movements of the roughly 90,000 migrants. Some were filmed walking against the crowd flow, monitoring the influx, and guiding people toward specific routes.
The court is now investigating whether these individuals were passive observers or active organizers. As a central part of this inquiry, Judge Tardón has scheduled three Moroccan witnesses to testify before the National Court this Wednesday.
Earlier this month, Remix News reported on news that some 70 percent of recent asylum applications filed by Moroccan migrants in Ceuta were claiming to be persecuted homosexuals.
In August, soldiers on the ground stated that they were “helpless” against migrant ambushes and “feared for their lives.” There have also been reports out of Spanish police that the waves of migrants pouring into the enclave are being planned by the Moroccan government.
The migrant surge last July saw nearly 50,000 illegal migrants enter the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco within 24 hours. Remix News reported in early August that a dozen illegal migrants who entered Ceuta in that wave had previously been investigated for jihadist terrorism in Spain before being deported to Morocco.
Both trains had been brought to a halt earlier when the signalling system failed. The driver of the state-owned Spanish train, a Renfe AVE service, was told by controllers to restart the journey, but crashed into the train in front, run by the private operator Iryo. The front carriages of the AVE train and rear of the Iryo train were destroyed and others derailed.
Both trains had been brought to a halt earlier when the signalling system failed. The driver of the state-owned Spanish train, a Renfe AVE service, was told by controllers to restart the journey, but crashed into the train in front, run by the private operator Iryo. The front carriages of the AVE train and rear of the Iryo train were destroyed and others derailed.
A 45-year-old Portuguese citizen, resident in Spain and an employee of a Spanish railway company, has been reported as among the missing following yesterday’s devastating high speed rail collision near
Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
A proposed trilateral meeting among Russian President Vladimir Putin, United States President Donald Trump, and Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to address the concessions Ukraine will need to make to end the conflict, according to retired German Bundeswehr general Roland Kather. In an interview with a German television channel, Kather said the logical conclusion of the fighting is a diplomatic settlement reached through negotiations, and that Trump is dissatisfied with the unresolved situation and intends to push for an agreement.
The German general stressed that the summit will not be a casual discussion or merely an opportunity to “have coffee” and that they must prepare specific decisions in advance. He suggested that the three leaders will examine three core issues related to Ukraine: territorial problems that can be settled only at the heads-of-state level, Ukraine’s permanent neutral status, and the future size of its armed forces.
Kather expressed doubt that Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky is prepared to offer meaningful concessions. At the same time, he said Putin has no reason to retreat because Moscow still has the advantage.
Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov has already said that preparations for a Putin-Trump-Xi meeting on the sidelines of the upcoming APEC summit in China are underway. Trump has said the summit is needed mainly to discuss nuclear disarmament, though the Ukraine question is widely expected to feature.
The three leaders are discussing this issue among themselves, as Ukraine has nothing substantial left to offer Russia at the negotiating table. Moscow has also been clear about its ultimatum – demands met through a negotiated deal in which Ukraine cedes territory and accepts neutrality, or the military operation continues until Russia achieves its objectives on the battlefield. Since Trump has accepted that Ukraine no longer brings anything of value to negotiations but is still encouraged to fight by Brussels, he will directly negotiate with Putin and Xi to end the war.
Earlier this month, Putin signaled Russia’s readiness to resume trilateral talks on a Ukraine settlement focused on security guarantees and the future architecture of European security. Ushakov said such talks could resume after the US midterm elections on November 3.
Meanwhile, the EU is facing the consequences of years of confrontational policy. The newspaper La Verità noted that the EU’s intransigent stance toward Russia has left Brussels scrambling to secure a seat at the table with other powers, saying negotiation is a fundamental tool of political power and that when one actor stops talking to another, it lets others set the terms of peace. The Italian daily described this as the humiliating lesson the EU appears to have learned.
Since 2022, the EU has tightened economic sanctions, pursued Russia’s political isolation, and provided military support to Ukraine. Brussels is now considering appointing a senior representative to establish a direct channel with Moscow as it urgently seeks to restore dialogue with a government it had vowed never to normalize relations with. The main challenge is finding someone who can speak for the EU without being seen in Moscow as merely voicing hostility. Neither European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen nor the majority of EU members are considered suitable, given their repeated criticisms of Russia.
European leaders continue to insist that no agreement on European security be reached without EU involvement. However, the EU’s influence has diminished because it long refused to keep channels open. Brussels has reportedly considered five possible mediators to contact Russia on a Ukraine peace deal: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Czech President Petr Pavel, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.
Putin said former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder would be his preferred negotiator, adding that the Europeans should choose someone they trust who has not made harsh statements against Moscow.
The Russian military and political advantage narrows Ukraine’s chances of the Kremlin making concessions, a reality the EU stubbornly refuses to accept. At the same time, the EU’s scramble to find an acceptable negotiator highlights the economic and political damage that self-imposed isolation from Russia has caused. Without open communication channels and the ability to shift the balance of power, both Kiev and Brussels face an agreement largely shaped by Trump, Putin, and Xi.
Preparations for the trilateral summit within the APEC context, along with Russia’s stated readiness to resume talks after the US midterm elections, suggest that Kiev’s window to negotiate on a realistic basis and secure a better deal is closing. The capacity for the three Great Powers to set the agenda without Ukrainian participation further underlines how far the balance has shifted in Russia’s favor since the conflict began, despite Western sanctions.
Shocked residents of Urda swung into action to help as soon as they heard of Wednesday’s deadly train crash on the railway line a few kilometres from the normally sleepy Spanish town.
Urda’s 78-year-old pharmacist said he was one of the first on the scene, jumping into his car to try to help after his daughter told him of the crash involving two high-speed trains.
Antonio Garcia said that as he approached, the scale of the accident that has so far left at least 68 people dead became clear, with one carriage wedged inside another and scores of bodies.
“Just imagine what was inside,” said Garcia, who brought first aid materials, painkillers and tranquillisers from his pharmacy as well as blankets to help treat the injured.
Garcia described how one passenger who had lost an arm in the crash was calmly asking for an ambulance, while another was saying his final goodbyes to his family.
Spain’s deadliest train disasters
ADAMUZ (2026)
Forty six people died and more than 120 were injured in southern Spain after a high-speed train derailed and collided with an oncoming one on January 18 near Adamuz, in the province of Cordoba.
The accident is still under investigation. A preliminary report by Spain’s Civil Guard in February pointed to defects in the track, rail or weld between two sections of track as the main hypothesis for the accident, but kept seven other theories open.
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA (2013)
A railway accident in the summer of 2013 left 80 people dead and 145 injured when an eight-carriage high-speed train veered off the track on a sharp bend near the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela, slamming into a concrete wall and bursting into flames.
A Transport Ministry commission concluded that the accident was caused by speeding and the driver being distracted by a call from a superior, but a victims’ association blamed the accident not only on human error but also on the railway’s security systems.
MADRID COMMUTER TRAIN BOMBINGS (2004)
On March 11, 2004, 10 backpack bombs detonated on four Cercanias commuter trains, killing 193 people and injuring thousands of others during Madrid’s rush hour. The attacks were carried out by Islamists opposing Spain’s participation in the Iraq war.
EL CUERVO (1972)
An accident caused by a head-on collision between two trains on the Cadiz-Seville route left 86 people dead and more than 150 injured near the southern town of El Cuervo in 1972. The accident was caused by a driver’s failure to stop at a red light at El Cuervo station, according to an investigation by state-owned rail operator Renfe.
URDULIZ (1970)
A head-on collision of two trains killed 33 people in the town of Urduliz, near the northern city of Bilbao, in the summer of 1970. A stationmaster was initially blamed for the accident, but it later emerged that he had been working 16-hour shifts for the previous four days.
GRISEN (1965)
A train on the Madrid-Barcelona route caught fire in 1965 in the town of Grisen, near northeastern Zaragoza, killing dozens of passengers. Though the train operator said at the time that 30 people died, later reports have said the real death toll was up to 80 and that the Francoist leadership tried to play it down.
TORRE DEL BIERZO (1944)
The 1944 crash of three trains in the El Bierzo region of León province is considered one of the deadliest railway disasters in Spain, with the estimated death toll of 78 still being debated due to censorship under Francisco Franco.
A train travelling from Madrid to A Coruña suffered a brake failure and collided with a locomotive inside a tunnel, just before a third train entered the same gallery and crashed into the wreckage.
“His last words were ‘God is good’. For those of us who are believers, these are very beautiful words,” said Garcia.
Other locals brought bottles of water to give to passengers who were evacuated from the two trains.
A community mobilises to help survivors
A few hours later, Urda was brimming with police, firefighters and emergency workers from across the region and its local sports hall was converted into a centre for survivors.
The local primary school was reserved for relatives of the victims, where a volunteer psychologist from Madrid called Carmen said she had been helping out since the morning.
“There were many mothers who found out their children had been killed. That was the worst of today. Telling a mother that her child has died in a train crash is devastating,” she said.
Families face an agonising search
Some relatives made the two-hour trip from the Spanish capital Madrid to search for family members.
A woman who gave her name as Ana said she had travelled to Urda after a call from environmental police who had found their dog, Trece, who was on board a train with her husband Pepe.
Ana fought back tears as she described searching for her husband at the crash site, Urda’s sports hall and the primary school, adding that his name was not on any list.
Spain began three days of mourning on Thursday for at least 69 people who died in a high-speed rail collision, as hospitals continued to treat dozens of injured passengers and train drivers went on strike to urge more investment in railway safety.
The trains – one from Spain’s state-owned Renfe and the other from the private rail company Iryo – were travelling from Madrid towards the southern region of Andalucía on Wednesday when they collided just before 9am. After the Iryo train came to a halt, the other slammed into its rear, knocking several carriages off the track near Urda in the central region of Castilla-La Mancha.
Spain began three days of mourning on Thursday for at least 69 people who died in a high-speed rail collision, as hospitals continued to treat dozens of injured passengers and train drivers went on strike to urge more investment in railway safety.
The trains – one from Spain’s state-owned Renfe and the other from the private rail company Iryo – were travelling from Madrid towards the southern region of Andalucía on Wednesday when they collided just before 9am. After the Iryo train came to a halt, the other slammed into its rear, knocking several carriages off the track near Urda in the central region of Castilla-La Mancha.
Hay pocas figuras en España reconocidas únicamente por su nombre –Raphael, Chenoa, Amaia, Rosalía, Ramoncín–, muchas menos reconocidas únicamente por su primer apellido y puede que solo una reconocida por el segundo. Todo el mundo sabe quién es Palomo, el personaje, pero no tantos que su nombre completo es Alejandro Gómez Palomo. Alejandro nació en Posadas, Córdoba, y tiene 34 años. Palomo ha cumplido diez como firma y también como gran personaje de la moda española del siglo XXI. Ha conseguido que una propuesta revolucionaria y desafiante llegue al gran público, a las pasarelas internacionales, a acuerdos con todo tipo de marcas y a los famosos más absolutamente famosos del mundo. Y el hombre detrás de Palomo, gracias a su presencia constante en medios, se ha convertido en una figura en sí mismo, uno de esos modistas que consiguen llegar a una audiencia que tal vez no sepa de patrones o costuras, pero reconoce el impacto cultural y las hechuras que definen a una estrella. En ICON hemos pedido a Palomo y a Alejandro Gómez Palomo, a los dos a la vez, que repasen los cinco momentos que han definido esta década que ha pasado desde el nacimiento de su marca.
After a high-speed collision near Toledo, Spain, killed at least 68 people, rail safety experts said the rough consensus that it is best to sit in the middle of a train has its limits.
There is shock, anger and mourning in Spain after the second fatal train crash this year. At least 68 people have died in what is now the deadliest collision there in more than a decade. William Brangham reports.
The Spain’s government has declared three days of national mourning, from October 29 to 31, for the 64 people killed in the collision of two passenger trains on October 28 in the province of Toledo.
The Spanish government declared three days of national mourning, to be observed on October 29, 30 and 31, 2026. The order requires flags to fly at half-staff on public buildings and military installations across the country during the three days.
Pedro Sánchez announced the measure in memory of those who died in the rail collision in the province of Toledo, in the autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha.
The impact occurred at 8:54 A.M. local time near the municipality of Urda. A high-speed AVE train, operated by state-owned Renfe, hit the rear of a train operated by the private company Iryo, which was stopped on the tracks. The collision derailed the last two cars of the Iryo train and sent several units down a ravine.
Following a deadly train crash near Toledo, Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez declares 3 days of national mourning and demands strict safety measures: "It is unacceptable for Spain to suffer two high-speed rail accidents in the same year." pic.twitter.com/IeiKNHndtf
The crash involved two operators that share Spain’s high-speed network. Renfe, which is state-owned, runs the AVE, while Iryo, which is privately owned, operates the train that was struck from behind. Both companies carry passengers on high-speed corridors.
65 people died in the crash, according to the President of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page. There were 544 passengers aboard the two trains at the time of the impact: 397 on the AVE and 147 on the Iryo, including a baby.
The rescue operation involved 100 members of the Military Emergencies Unit. The Civil Guard’s Major Disasters Team also took part. The search for bodies continues, meanwhile the injured remain in hospitals.
Official activity was suspended in the central government and in regional administrations while emergency teams continue their work at the crash site.
Sánchez traveled to Toledo to assess the response at the scene. King Felipe VI set aside his official engagements after speaking with the prime minister about what had happened. Both cleared their public schedules.
For her part, Health Minister Mónica García suspended her scheduled activities and merged state medical resources with the regional administrations of Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha to assist victims of the disaster in Urda. The order pulled national capacity and local response into a single coordinated operation.
Signaling and safety failures on the high-speed network are the focus of the technical investigation. Transport Minister Óscar Puente went to Atocha station in Madrid to review those systems. He also examined the factors surrounding the collision between the two trains.
‼️Accidente tren
🚨 La Guardia Civil ha desplegado en la zona personal de Seguridad Ciudadana de la provincia de Toledo, OMAC (Oficinas Móviles de Atención a la Ciudadanía) así como agentes del SEPRONA y de la Jefatura de Tráfico.
Text reads: “The Civil Guard has deployed personnel from the Citizen Security area of the province of Toledo, OMAC (Mobile Offices for Citizenship) as well as agents from SEPRONA and the Traffic Headquarters.”
The January Precedent
The Urda disaster follows a wreck that Spanish investigators still struggle to explain. In January 2026, on the Madrid-Andalucía route near Adamuz in Córdoba province, an Iryo train departing the capital derailed and struck another unit serving the Huelva-Madrid corridor.
That collision produced no immediate answers and the track had been renovated shortly before. The first train cleared its technical inspection only four days earlier, moving between 200 and 210 kilometers per hour. Minister Óscar Puente described the crash as a highly unusual event.
The consequences spread fast. Rail service toward the south of the country stopped temporarily while experts examined the wreckage. Atocha station, Madrid’s main rail terminal, absorbed massive cancellations as passengers rebooked or abandoned their journeys.
Months later, the cause remains open. Renovated track, a freshly inspected train, and routine high speed, none of it explained the collision. That unresolved record shaped the public mood when the news from Urda arrived.
Two railway disasters within a single year have now tested Spain’s emergency systems twice. January demanded a forensic response, an effort to understand an accident that defied easy explanation. Urda has demanded a medical one.
Spanish authorities have not yet released a complete account of the Urda disaster. Investigators will face the same task that followed Adamuz, determining what failed and why. The January wreck left a toll of 39 dead and more than 100 wounded, and the questions it raised remain unresolved as the country confronts a second emergency on the same network.
The national mourning decreed by the government will last until October 31. Technical teams will determine the causes of the crash and the condition of the signaling systems on that stretch of the network, as well the recovery of the hospitalized injured completes the authorities’ immediate agenda.
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