At least 30 killed after high-speed train rear-ends stopped train in Toledo province, media report

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A high-speed train hit the rear of another train that had stopped in the province of Toledo on Wednesday morning, derailing two cars and killing at least 30 people, multiple media reports said.

Spanish regional spokeswoman Esther Padilla, speaking for Castilla La Mancha, said earlier that the death toll was expected to rise, after authorities had initially reported 10 deaths.

The Spanish rail infrastructure manager ADIF said the crash occurred in the morning in Toledo province, and rail service was suspended between Madrid, Ciudad Real and Andalusia.

Padilla told state broadcaster TVE that the accident involved two high-speed trains carrying hundreds of passengers and travelling in the same direction from Madrid to Seville in southwestern Spain; she said one train ran into the tail of the other that had stopped, knocking two cars off the track.

Spanish Health Minister Mónica García said emergency workers were focusing on rescuing survivors and bodies from the two most damaged train cars and that injured passengers were being sent to hospitals in the area, adding: “It was a high-speed impact, so we are expecting this to be a tragedy.”

The crash involved trains operated by Spain’s RENFE and the private company IRYO, which said it had “activated its security protocols and is closely working with authorities.” Spanish media reported that the RENFE train appeared to have struck the IRYO train.

Padilla said 397 passengers were on the RENFE train and 147 were on the IRYO train.

The mayor of Urda, Manuel Galán, told TVE that civil protection authorities had asked his town hall to prepare a sports pavilion to help injured passengers.

A military emergency brigade was deployed to assist emergency services, firefighters and police at the crash site, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez cancelled his agenda to focus on the accident.

Sánchez wrote on X that he was “dismayed by the serious train accident in Toledo” and said “Emergency services are working on site to attend to the affected passengers,” adding “All my thoughts are with the victims and their families.”

Regional president Emiliano García-Page also said on X that he was on his way to the crash site.

The reports described the crash occurring in a flat stretch of fields between the towns of Urda and Los Yébenes, with debris scattered down a gravel slope. The accident was the second major train incident in Spain this year; in January, 45 people died after a train jumped the track and hit an oncoming train.