Police broke a protest as it attempted to march on the nation's transportation ministry after the second major rail disaster this year.
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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.
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 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.
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.
President Nikos Christodoulides said on Wednesday he was “deeply saddened by the tragic train collision in Spain”.
In a post on X, Christodoulides extended his “profound condolences to the families of the victims, to the Spanish people, and to PM”.
“We stand in resolute solidarity with Spain during this time of sorrow,” he added.
At least 30 people were killed when two high-speed trains collided in Spain on Wednesday, the second deadly accident in less than a year on the line connecting Madrid to the southern Andalusia region, regional authorities said.
Footage from regional Castilla-La Mancha television showed a derailed train with several carriages remaining on an elevated section of track while twisted metal, broken panels and wreckage could be seen strewn across an embankment beneath the line.
Castilla-La Mancha regional government said the death toll had risen to 30 from 10 after earlier warning it could rise.
The collision comes nine months after an accident between high-speed trains belonging to the same operators on the same line that killed 46 people.
That crash in January, which occurred after a train derailed and smashed into an oncoming train near Adamuz, in Cordoba province, triggered a debate about the level of investment in railway maintenance in recent years.
At least 30 people were killed when two high-speed trains collided in Spain on Wednesday, the second deadly accident in less than a year on the line connecting Madrid to the southern Andalusia region, regional authorities said.
Footage from regional Castilla-La Mancha Television showed a derailed train with at least one carriage remaining on an elevated section of track while twisted metal, broken panels and wreckage could be seen strewn across an embankment beneath the line.
Miguel, a passenger travelling with several colleagues in the rear car of one of the trains, described to COPE radio the moment of the accident.
“We heard a massive roar, a truly enormous thud that went on for 10 seconds, as if the train were about to derail. Through the right-hand window, we could see a wrecked train – I imagine it must have been the other one,” he said.
Castilla-la Mancha regional government said the death toll had risen to 30 from 10 after earlier warning it could rise.
The collision comes nine months after an accident between high-speed trains belonging to the same operators on the same line that killed 46 people.
That crash in January, which occurred after a train derailed and smashed into an oncoming train near Adamuz, in Cordoba province, triggered a debate about the level of investment in railway maintenance in recent years.
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