MADRID: At least 69 people have been killed in a devastating Spain train crash in the central province of Toledo, where a Renfe AVE high-speed train ploughed into the rear of a stationary Iryo service near the town of Urda on Wednesday morning, 28 October 2026.
The collision, which happened at about 8:53am local time on the high-speed line linking Madrid with Seville, is Spain’s deadliest rail disaster since the Santiago de Compostela crash of 2013 and the country’s second fatal high-speed accident this year. Spain’s government has declared three days of national mourning.
What happened near Urda, Toledo
This Renfe AVE Iryo crash unfolded between the towns of Urda and Los Yébenes, roughly 140 kilometres south of Madrid. A Renfe AVE service carrying 397 passengers, which had departed Madrid at 08:00, struck an Iryo train that was halted on the tracks ahead of it.
The Iryo train, operated by the private consortium owned by Italy’s Trenitalia group, had 147 people on board. Both trains were travelling south toward Seville Santa Justa station. The violence of the impact destroyed the rear carriage of the Iryo train and threw several carriages from both services down an embankment, scattering twisted metal and broken panels across the slope.
Of the 544 people travelling on the two trains in this Spain train crash, regional authorities confirmed that 68 died on Wednesday, with 24 victims found aboard the Renfe train and the remainder on the Iryo service. A further hospitalised victim died on Thursday, raising the provisional toll to at least 69.
Death toll rises as Spain enters national mourning
Castilla-La Mancha regional president Emiliano García-Page said rescuers were proceeding carriage by carriage in a grim search for more victims, and warned that the toll could still rise. About 110 injured people were admitted to hospitals; 60 have been discharged while 50 remain under treatment, 15 of them in critical condition.
Among those confirmed dead is Fátima Báñez, who served as Spain’s employment minister from 2011 to 2018. Authorities said DNA samples would be needed to identify some of the victims of the Spain train crash.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, declared three days of national mourning and said “all of Spain” was grieving. King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia said they were deeply saddened, while Pope Leo sent condolences to the victims’ families.
Emergency crews, helicopters and Spain’s military emergency unit worked through the night at the site of the Spain train crash.
The “inexplicable” order behind the Toledo train crash
Spain’s transport minister, Óscar Puente, blamed the Toledo train crash on what he called an “inexplicable” order from the national rail control centre. A computer communications failure had disrupted the safety signalling system along a 63-kilometre stretch of railway, automatically stopping trains in the area — including the Iryo service near Urda.
Controllers then issued an instruction allowing the following Renfe train to resume running without speed restrictions, despite an active stop signal ahead. The Renfe AVE covered 25 kilometres at high speed before the impact. Minister Puente described the collision as “truly unbelievable” and stressed that the train engineers were not at fault.
Rail infrastructure manager Adif confirmed the accident took place in Toledo province. Iryo said its train had been “struck from behind” and that the cause was still unknown. Renfe said its train had continued on its way as instructed, adding that the exact sequence of events would be established by the official investigation. The inquiry into the Spain train crash will determine exactly who ordered the restart — and why.
Prime Minister Sánchez vowed that any failures would be addressed, saying what was “unacceptable for a country like Spain is to suffer two high-speed rail accidents in the same year.”
Victims, rescue efforts and international impact
The Spain train crash drew emergency resources from across the region. The mayor of Urda said civil protection officials opened a sports pavilion for evacuated passengers; some survivors described smashing windows to escape the mangled carriages.
The US State Department said several American citizens were among the injured, while Canada’s CBC reported that six Canadians were hurt and one remained missing.
The Spanish soccer federation postponed 24 Copa del Rey matches. High-speed services between Madrid, Ciudad Real and Andalusia were suspended as investigators began their work at the scene.
The disaster also spilled into politics: with general elections scheduled for 29 November, parties cancelled campaign events, and far-right groups gathered outside the Transport Ministry in Madrid demanding the government’s resignation, facing off with police.
Spain’s rail crisis: second deadly crash in a year
The Spain train crash at Urda is the country’s second major high-speed disaster of 2026. In January, 46 people died when an Iryo train derailed near Adamuz, in Córdoba province, on the same Madrid–Seville line — involving the same two operators.
That earlier accident had already triggered an unprecedented crisis of confidence in Spain’s rail network, with debate over investment in railway maintenance. The new disaster, which the government says appears to have unrelated causes, will intensify scrutiny of rail safety in the country that operates Europe’s longest high-speed rail network.
It is the deadliest rail accident in Europe since the 2013 Santiago de Compostela derailment, which killed 80 people. The official investigation into the Spain high-speed rail accident continues, with authorities examining both the signalling failure and the control centre’s decisions. Follow more World News on urdupro.info for the latest updates on this developing story.
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