An aerial view of the crash site after two high-speed trains collided in Urda, Spain, on October 28, 2026, in this screengrab taken from a video.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
The death toll from a high-speed train collision south of Madrid on Wednesday (October 28, 2026) has more than doubled to 64, Spanish regional authorities said, warning the figure was still likely to increase.
“We are speaking of approximately 64 (dead), but this is probably going to grow even more,” the leader of the central region of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano Garcia-Page, told reporters at the scene, raising a previous toll of 31.
People check an information screen displaying a message that the high-speed train line between Madrid and Andalucia has been interrupted following the collision of two high-speed trains between the towns of Mora and Orgaz at Atocha train station in Madrid, Spain, on October 28, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
Reuters
It was the second major train accident in Spain this year.
Spain’s rail system operator ADIF said the crash occurred Wednesday morning (October 28, 2026) in the Province of Toledo. Rail service was suspended between Madrid, Ciudad Real and Andalusia.
Ms. Padilla told state broadcaster TVE that the accident was between two high-speed trains carrying hundreds of passengers and heading in the same direction from the capital, Madrid, to Seville in southwestern Spain. One ran into the tail of the other that had stopped, knocking two of its cars off the track. She said the cause of the crash was not known.
The crash, which occurred in a flat stretch surrounded by fields in between the towns of Urda and Los Yébenes, left one car shredded into bits of metal and other material, scattering debris down a gravel slope.
Spanish Health Minister Mónica García told TVE that emergency workers were focusing on rescuing survivors and bodies from the two most damaged train cars. She said that the injured are being sent to different hospitals in the area.
“It was a high-speed impact, so we are expecting this to be a tragedy,” Mr. García said.
The accident involved a train from Spain’s state-owned RENFE company and the private rail company IRYO. It appeared the RENFE train rammed the IRYO train, Spanish media reported. Trains from those two companies were also involved in a deadly crash in January.
Ms. Padilla said that 397 passengers were in the RENFE train and 147 passengers in the IRYO train.
IRYO, an Italian-owned company, said in a statement that it has “activated its security protocols and is closely working with authorities.”
The Mayor of the nearby town of Urda, Manuel Galán, told Spanish state broadcaster TVE that civil protection authorities had asked his town hall to prepare a sports pavilion to attend to injured passengers.
A military emergency brigade was deployed to help emergency services, firefighters and police to the crash site.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez cancelled his agenda to focus on the crash. He wrote on X that he was “dismayed by the serious train accident in Toledo.”
“Emergency services are working on site to attend to the affected passengers,” wrote Mr. Sánchez, who faces a national election next month. “All my thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
The regional president of Castilla La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, wrote on X that he was on his way to the crash site.
In January, 45 people died in southern Spain when a train jumped the track and hit an oncoming train. The crash was the deadliest in Spain since a 2013 crash that killed 80 people. The January incident shook the confidence the European country has in its extensive high-speed rail network.
Published – October 28, 2026 03:28 pm IST
