At Least 10 Killed as High-Speed Trains Collide in Central Spain

At least 10 people were killed on Wednesday when one high-speed train ran into the rear of another that had stopped in central Spain, authorities said. The impact knocked two cars off the track.

Esther Padilla, spokeswoman for the Castilla La Mancha region, confirmed 10 deaths but cautioned that "that number will surely rise."

Spain's rail operator ADIF said the collision happened on Wednesday morning in the province of Toledo. Rail service between Madrid, Ciudad Real and Andalusia was suspended.

Speaking to state broadcaster TVE, Padilla said both trains were traveling in the same direction, from Madrid to Seville. One of them struck the tail of the other while it was stationary. She said the cause of the crash was not yet known.

The trains belonged to two different operators: one to the state-owned company RENFE and the other to the private company IRYO. Padilla said 397 passengers were aboard the RENFE train and 147 on the IRYO train. Trains from the same two companies were also involved in a deadly crash in January.

Manuel Galán, mayor of the nearby town of Urda, told TVE that passengers had been injured. He said civil protection authorities had asked his town hall to prepare a sports pavilion where passengers could be attended to.

Emiliano García-Page, the regional president of Castilla La Mancha, wrote on X that he was on his way to the crash site.

The latest crash comes after a January accident in southern Spain in which 45 people died when a train left the track and hit an oncoming train. That crash was the deadliest in the country since a 2013 accident that killed 80 people, and it shook Spain's confidence in its extensive high-speed rail network.