A Renfe AVE ran into the back of a stationary Iryo train on the Madrid to Andalucía high-speed line near Urda in Toledo province on Wednesday morning, killing at least 68 people, the regional authorities said on Wednesday afternoon. The government of Castilla-La Mancha had counted 30 dead by midday, 24 on the AVE and six on the Iryo, and its president, Emiliano García-Page, had said more bodies would be found once rescue teams reached the far ends of the wrecked carriages, several of which lie on an embankment. Dozens of injured were taken to hospitals in Toledo, Ciudad Real and Madrid, and the regional government appealed for blood donors.

Transport Minister Óscar Puente said on Wednesday afternoon that a failure in the computer communications system had thrown the signals to red, which stopped traffic on the line automatically, and that the AVE was then cleared to restart against that red signal, a decision he called a mistake and a breach of protocol. Government sources had earlier told El País that the first hypothesis was human error by an Adif controller after the LZB signalling system that governs Spain's high-speed lines went down. About eight trains stopped in the area and the Atocha control centre, running the line by hand, ordered them to move again.

Renfe said its train "continued on its way as instructed" and hit the Iryo, which had stayed stationary "for reasons we don't know". The Iryo, train 6076, had stopped on Adif's orders because of the signal fault and did not restart, and the controller ordered the AVE behind it, train 2080, to proceed. It struck the Iryo from behind at a speed not yet determined, with 397 passengers on the AVE and 147 on the Iryo. It is Spain's second high-speed disaster this year, after the Adamuz crash in January that killed more than 40 people, and the UGT union has demanded "rigour and transparency" on the causes and that responsibility be assigned.

Adif suspended the line and more than 80 high-speed services between Madrid and Andalucía were cancelled. The King sent his condolences, the Senate and the Andalusian parliament suspended their sittings, Spain's municipalities called a minute's silence at 20:00, and every party but Vox suspended its campaign for the 29 November general election. This news is developing, more updates will follow.