Blindside strike sends 30 to their deaths as high-speed trains collide in Toledo

Thirty people died in central Spain on Wednesday when two high-speed trains collided.

The Castilla La Mancha regional press office confirmed the death toll to NBC News. The accident occurred just after 9 a.m. local time in Toledo province. ADIF, the state railway infrastructure manager, reported the timing in a post on X. It marks the second fatal rail crash in Spain this year.

Esther Padilla, a spokeswoman for the Castilla La Mancha region, explained the sequence of events to state broadcaster TVE. Two trains were traveling in the same direction from Madrid to Seville. One train struck the rear of the other, which had stopped on the line. The impact knocked two cars of the stationary train off the track. Padilla stated that the cause of the crash remained unknown at the time of her comments.

The two trains carried a combined total of 544 passengers. The state-owned Renfe train held 397 people. The private operator Iryo, which is Italian-owned, carried 147 passengers. Miguel, a passenger in the rear car of one of the trains, described the collision to COPE radio. He said, "We heard a massive roar, a truly enormous thud that went on for 10 seconds, as if the train were about to derail."

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed his reaction to the incident on X. He described himself as "deeply saddened" by the accident. He added that emergency services are working on-site to assist those affected. He sent his sympathy to the victims and their families. Manuel Galan, the mayor of Urda, a municipality near Toledo, told TVE that emergency services asked him to prepare a local sports hall for the injured.

This collision follows a deadly incident in January on the same Madrid to Seville line. That crash involved the same two operators, Renfe and Iryo. It left 45 people dead when a train jumped the track and hit an oncoming train. The January accident was Spain's deadliest since a 2013 crash that killed 80 people. Spain currently operates the largest high-speed rail network in Europe for trains moving more than 155 mph, with over 1,900 miles of track.

Renfe established an emergency phone line to help families of the victims. Iryo stated that it activated its security protocols and is working closely with authorities. The two companies operate services on the high-speed line connecting the capital with the Andalusian city.